i638 


FOUNDERS'  DAY 


1888 


New  Haven,  Conn. 


PROCEEDINGS 


IN   COMMEMORATION 


OF    THE   SETTLEMENT  OF   THE 


,  Town  of  New  Haven 


APRIL    25TH,   1888. 


F  THIS 


WORHIP-  OF  GOD, 


A  granite  tablet,  a  cut  of  which  is  printed  above,  was  inserted  by  order 
of  the  committee  in  the  west  wall  of  the  brick  store  at  the  corner  of 
College  and  George  streets. 

The  oak  tree,  beneath  whose  shade  the  first  public  Christian  worship  in 
New  Haven  was  observed,  is  said  by  tradition  to  have  stood  about  twenty 
feet  north  of  George  street  and  forty-five  feet  east  of  College  street. 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


The  first  steps  towards  the  celebration  of  the  25oth  anniver- 
sary of  the  settlement  of  New  Haven  were  taken  at  a  special 
town  meeting  held  in  Loomis'  Temple  of  Music,  .December 
22d,  1887,  previous  notice  in  legal  form  having  been  given. 
At  this  meeting  the  following  votes  were  passed  : 

Voted,  That  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  be  and  is 
hereby  appropriated  from  the  treasury  of  the  town  for  the 
purpose  of  properly  celebrating  the  25oth  anniversary  of  the 
settlement  of  the  town  of  New  Haven,  if  in  the  judgment  of 
the  Board  of  Selectmen  they  should  deem  it  best ;  provided 
that  the  Selectmen  enquire  into  the  legality  of  expending 
such  sum. 

Voted,  That  said  sum  be  expended  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Selectmen,  and  that  said  celebration  should  be  of  a  civic  and 
historical,  rather  than  of  a  military  character. 

In  accordance  with  this  action,  a  public  hearing  of  citizens 
interested  in  t  the  celebration  was  held  February  ist,  1888,  in 
response  to  an  invitation  published  by  the  selectmen  in  the 
daily  papers.  At  a  second  hearing,  held  February  24th,  those 
present  voted  to  appoint  the  following  committee  to  co-operate 
with  the  selectmen  in  managing  the  celebration  : 

From  the  Selectmen — JAMES  REYNOLDS,  GEORGE  M.  WHITE. 

From  the  Chamber  of  Commerce — HENRY  G.  LEWIS,  HENRY 
S.  DAWSON,  N.  D.  SPERRY,  MAX  ABLER,  JAMES  D.  DEWELL, 
JAMES  P.  PIGOTT. 

From  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  Society — THOMAS  R. 
TROWBRIDGE,  JOHNSON  T.  PLATT,  RUEL  P.  COWLES,  SIMEON 
E.  BALDWIN. 

From  Yale  University — FRANKLIN  B.  DEXTER. 
From  the  Board  of  Education — HORACE  DAY. 


2013174 


From  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic — LEWIS  B.  BROWN,  E.  E. 
TISDALE,  DAVID  S.  THOMAS,  NATHAN  EASTERBROOK,  JR. 

From  the  New  Haven  Congregational  Club — JUSTIN  E.  TWITCHELL. 
From  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School — GEORGE  L.  Fox. 

From  the  Citizens  of  the  Town — HENRY  B.   HARRISON,  L.  S. 

PUNDERSON. 

Various  sub-committees  to  represent  the  different  interests 
involved  were  subsequently  appointed,  and  additions  were 
made  to  the  general  committee  from  time  to  time.  This  com- 
mittee as  finally  constituted  was  as  follows  : 

JAMES   REYNOLDS,  Chairman. 
NATHAN  EASTERBROOK,  JR.,  Secretary. 

MAX  ADLER,  FRANK  E.  CRAIG, 

CHARLES  W.  ALLEN,  M.  C.  CREMIN, 

E.  D.  BASSETT,  HENRY  S.  DAWSON, 

SIMEON  E.  BALDWIN,  HORACE  DAY, 

T.  ATTWATER  BARNES  FRANKLIN  B.  DEXTER, 

WILLIAM  A.  BEERS,  CLARENCE  DEMING, 

J.  J.  BRENNAN,  JAMES  D.  DEWELL, 

ISAAC  E.  BROWN,  GEORGE  L.  DICKERMAN, 

LEWIS  B.  BROWN,  EDWARD  F.  DURAND, 

E.  E.  BRADLEY,  H.  W.  DURAND,  ' 

JOHN  C.  BRADLEY,  TIMOTHY  DWIGHT, 

HENRY  T.  BLAKE,  JOHN  E.  EARLE, 

CHARLES  F.  BOLLMANN,  B.  E.  ELMSTEDT, 

SAMUEL  BOLTON,  CHARLES  H.  FARNAM, 

CALEB  B.  BOWERS,  HENRY  W.  FARNAM, 

WILLIAM  H.  CARMALT,  Louis  FELDMAN, 

HIRAM  CAMP,  GEORGE  L.  Fox, 

R.  H.  CHITTENDEN,  SIMEON  J.  Fox, 

RUEL  P.  COWLES,  GEORGE  H.  FORD, 

DANIEL  COLWELL,  CHARLES  FLEISCHNER, 

EDWIN  W.  COOPER,  W.  J.  FULLER. 


JAMES  GALLAGHER,  JR., 
HENRY  C.  GOODWIN, 
J.  P.  GOODHART, 
W.  L.  GUNNING, 
HENRY  B.  HARRISON, 
A.  C.  HENDRICK, 
HENRY  L.  HILL, 
CONRAD  HOFACKER, 
FRANK  HUGO, 
ALFRED  HUGHES, 
CHARLES  R.  INGERSOLL, 
L.  H.  JOHNSON, 
ALBERT  H.  KELLAM, 
ERNEST  KLENKE, 
FRANK  T.  LEE, 
HENRY  G.  LEWIS, 
AUGUSTUS  E.  LINES, 
HENRY  W.  MANSFIELD, 
PATRICK  McKENNA, 
EZRA  P.  MERRIAM, 
CHARLES  G.  MERRIMAN, 
S.  E.  MERWIN, 
JAMES  T.  MORAN, 
GEORGE  N.  MOSES, 
JAMES  T.  MULLEN, 
S.  M.  MUNSON, 
CHARLES  A.  NETTLETON, 
CHARLES  N.  NOTT, 

M.  C.  O'CONNER, 

HENRY  PECK, 
HENRY  F.  PECK, 


JAMES  P.  PIGOTT, 
JOHNSON  T.  PLATT, 
J.  D.  PLUNKETT, 
L.  S.  PUNDERSON, 
WILLIAM  REBMAN. 
JOHN  B.  ROBERTSON, 
WILLIAM  C.  ROBINSON, 
J.  P.  RICHARDS, 
JOHN  RUFF, 
PAUL  Russo, 
CHARLES  W.  SCRANTON, 
C.  SLEICHER, 
STEPHEN  R.  SMITH, 
N.  D.  SPERRY, 
HORACE  H.  STRONG, 
W.  F.  STERNBERG, 
PETER  TERHUNE, 
DAVID  S.  THOMAS, 

E.  E.   TlSDALE, 

CHARLES  H.  TOWNSEND, 
THOMAS  R.  TROWBRIDGE, 
MORRIS  F.  TYLER, 
JUSTIN  E.  TWITCHELL, 

F.  H.  WALDRON, 
GEORGE  M.  WHITE, 
WILLIAM  W.  WHITE, 
JAMES  D.  WHITMORE, 
ELI  WHITNEY,  JR., 
THEODORE  D.  WOOLSEY, 
SAMUEL  A.  YORK, 
MAIER  ZUNDER. 


The  following  sub-committees  had  charge  of  the  details 
of  the  celebration  : 


FINANCE. 

ELI  WHITNEY,  JR.,  Chairman. 
THOMAS  R.  TROWBRIDGE,  MAX  ABLER, 

CHARLES  H.  TOWNSEND,  PATRICK  MCKENNA. 

INVITATIONS. 
HENRY  G.  LEWIS,  Chairman. 

HENRY  B.  HARRISON,  JOHNSON  T.  PLATT, 

MORRIS  F.  TYLER,  CLARENCE  DEMING. 

YALE  UNIVERSITY. 
TIMOTHY    DWIGHT,  Chairman. 
FRANKLIN  B.  DEXTER,  HENRY  W.  FARNAM, 

WILLIAM  C.  ROBINSON,  WILLIAM  H.  CARMALT. 

CITY  GOVERNMENT. 

SAMUEL    A.    YORK,    Chairman. 
JAMES  D.  WHITMORE,  JAMES  T.  MORAN, 

GEORGE  L.  DICKERMAN,  CHARLES  FLEISCHNER. 

MILITARY  AND  FIRE  DEPARTMENT. 

E.  E.  BRADLEY,  Chairman. 

A.  C.  HENDRICK,  CHARLES  H.  FARNAM, 

H.  H.  STRONG,  FRANK  T.  LEE. 

CIVIC  SOCIETIES. 

A.  H.  KELLAM,  Chairman. 

JAMES  T.  MULLEN,  FRANK  HUGO, 

E.  F.  DURAND,  L.  H.  JOHNSON, 

CONRAD  HOFACKER,  H.  W.  DURAND, 

FRANK  E.  CRAIG,  HENRY  C.  GOODWIN, 

M.  C.  CREMIN,  WILLIAM  REBMAN, 

SAMUEL  BOLTON,  HENRY  L.  HILL, 

DANIEL  COLWELL,  WILLIAM  F.  STERNBERG, 

PETER  TERHUNE,  JAMES  GALLAGHER,  JR., 

J.  P.  RICHARDS,  PAUL  Russo, 

M.  C.  O'CoNNER,  GEORGE  N.  MOSES, 
W.  J.  FULLER. 


SCHOOLS. 

HORACE  DAY,  Chairman. 

J.  D.  PLUNKETT,  MAIER  ZUNDER, 

HENRY  F.  PECK,  GEORGE  L.  Fox. 

ORATION,  PUBLIC  EXERCISES  AND  HALL. 

JAMES  REYNOLDS,  Chairman. 
CHARLES  R.  INGERSOLL,  N.  D.  SPERRY, 

THOMAS  R.  TROWBRIDGE,  JAMES  D.  DEWELL. 

MEDALS  AND  MEMORIALS. 

HENRY  T.  BLAKE,  Chairman. 
S.  E.  BALDWIN,  N.  D.  SPERRY, 

E.  D.  BASSETT,  HORACE  DAY, 

JOHN  E.  EARLE,  THOMAS  R.  TROWBRIDGE, 

R.  H.  CHITTENDEN. 


PRINTING  AND  BADGES. 

D.  S.  THOMAS,  Chairman. 

CHARLES  W.  SCRANTON,  GEORGE  H.  FORD, 

SIMEON  J.  Fox,  EZRA  P.  MERRIAM. 


PROCESSION,   MARSHAL,   MUSIC  AND 
LINE  OF  MARCH. 

S.    E.    MERWIN,    Chairman. 

S.  R.  SMITH,  GEORGE  M.  WHITE, 

T.  ATTWATER  BARNES,  CHARLES  F.  BOLLMANN, 

HORACE  DAY. 


CARRIAGES. 

FRED.  H.  WALDRON,  Chairman. 
CHARLES  FLEISCHNER,  CHARLES  H.  R.  NOTT. 


REVISION  AND  PUBLICATION. 

HORACE  DAY,  Chairman. 
H.  W.  FARNAM,  JAMES  D.  WHITMORE. 

LANCASTERIAN  SCHOOL. 

JOHN  C.  BRADLEY,  Chairman. 
WILLIAM  W.  WHITE,  HENRY  PECK, 

AUGUSTUS  E.  LINES,  CHARLES  G.  MERRIMAN, 

HENRY  W.  MANSFIELD,  CHARLES  W.  ALLEN. 

It  was  soon  felt  that  the  original  appropriation  made  by  the 
town  would  not  be  sufficient  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the 
celebration.  Upon  the  recommendation  of  the  committee,  a 
special  town  meeting  was  accordingly  called  for  March  i5th, 
1888,  and  an  additional  appropriation  of  two  thousand  dollars 
was  then  made.  At  a  meeting  of  the  committee  held  March 
29th,  it  was  voted  that  the  day  of  the  celebration  be  named 
"  Founders'  Day." 

The  Committee  on  Procession  had  originally  appointed 
General  S.  R.  Smith  as  chief  marshal  of  the  day.  The  death 
of  Mrs.  Smith,  however,  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  act, 
and  Major  T.  Attwater  Barnes,  who  had  been  appointed 
as  General  Smith's  chief  of  staff,  was  requested  to  act  as 
marshal^in  his  place. 

No  medal  was  struck  by  the  general  committee  to  commem- 
orate the  celebration,  but  Mr.  Theiler,  of  Meriden,  was  author- 
ized to  make  one  as  a  matter  of  private  enterprise. 

The  general  committee  held  in  all  eleven  meetings,  the 
full  records  of  which  have  been  copied  in  a  book  and  placed 
by  Mr.  Easterbrook,  the  secretary  of  the  committee,  in  the 
library  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  Society. 

The  landing  of  the  earliest  settlers  having  taken  place  on 
the  1 5th  of  April,  1638,  O.  S.,  it  was  decided  to  hold  the  cele- 
bration on  the  corresponding  day  of  the  new  calendar,  that  is 
to  say  on  the  25th  of  April. 

The  official  exercises  consisted  of  a  procession 'in  the  morn- 
ing and  commemorative  exercises  in  the  Center  Church  in  the 
afternoon.  As  the  school  children  were  largely  represented 
in  the  procession,  a  leaflet  was  prepared  at  the  request  of  the 
Committee  by  Mr.  Horace  Day,  secretary  of  the  Board  of 


9 

Education,  giving  the  leading  facts  with  regard  to  the  various 
places  of  historical  interest  about  the  town,  which  were  indi- 
cated by  appropriate  inscriptions.  Twenty  thousand  copies 
of  this  leaflet  were  printed  for  gratuitous  distribution. 

The  former  pupils  of  Mr.  John  E.  Lovell's  Lancasterian 
School,  after  taking  part  in  the  procession,  held  a  reunion, 
which,  though  not  a  part  of  the  official  programme,  seems  to 
possess  sufficient  interest  to  warrant  us  in  appending  a  brief 
account  of  it  to  this  pamphlet. 

Finally,  as  the  tax-payers  have  a  right  to  know  how  the 
money  which  they  voted  has  been  spent  by  the  committee,  we 
have  also  printed  the  report  of  the  treasurer. 

These  various  topics  will  be  found  below  in  the  following 
order : 

(i.)  Leaflet  for  School  Children  ; 
(2.)  Order  of  Procession  and  Line  of  March  ; 
(3.)  Order  of  Exercises  in  Center  Church  ; 
(4.)  Oration,  by  Henry  T.  Blake,  Esq.  ; 
(5.)  Reunion  of  the  Lancasterian  School. 
(6.)  Treasurer's  Report. 


FOUNDERS'  DAY, 

April  z^th,  1638— April  i$th,  1888. 


THE  25oth  ANNIVERSARY 

OF  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  HAVEN. 


The  white  lines  indicate  the  original  streets  of  the  town  ;  the  dotted  lines,  the  additions 
made  in  two  centuries,  down  to  1838. 

The  numerals  correspond  with  those  which  mark  the  site  of  conspicuous  events  or  the 
residences  of  men  who  have  been  prominent  in  the  New  Haven  of  the  past. 

"A  people  which  takes  no  pride  in  the  noble  achievements  of  remote  ancestors  will  never 
achieve  any  thing  worthy  to  be  remembered  with  pride  by  remote  descendants." 

— Macaulay. 

Prepared  for  the  use  of  the  Children  in  the  Schools  of  New  Haven, 

many  of  whom  it  is  hoped  may  be  active  in  the  observance, 

fifty  years  hence,  of  the  third  Centennial  of  its  history. 


FOUNDERS'  DA  Y  COMMITTEE  ON  SCHOOLS. 
HORACE  DAY.  JOSEPH  D.  PLUNKETT.  HENRY  F.  PECK. 

MAIER  ZUNDER.  GEORGE  L.  Fox. 


QUINNIPIAC-RODENBURGH-NEW   HAVEN. 


This  town  was  first  known  to  Europeans  by  the  occasional  visits  of  Dutch 
traders,  who  named  it  Rodenburgh  or  Red  Hills,  from  the  most  conspicuous 
features  in  the  landscape.  Its  Indian  name  was  Quinnipiac.  In  1637, 
when  the  Pequots  were  driven  from  their  ancestral  homes  on  the  borders  of 
Rhode  Island,  to  perish  as  an  independent  tribe  in  a  swamp  in  Fairfield, 
the  English  soldiers  were  delayed  for  several  days  at  Quinnipiac,  uncertain 
in  what  direction  the  Indians  had  fled.  In  this  way  the  place  became 
known  to  Theophilus  Eaton  and  his  associates,  the  first  settlers  of  New 
Haven,  who  were  charmed  by  the  advantages  which  the  place  presented  for 
the  commercial  colony  they  proposed  to  found.  Several  weeks  were  spent 
by  Governor  Eaton  in  a  survey  of  the  place,  and  Joshua  Atwater  with  six 
others  were  left  here  during  the  winter  of  1637-8,  to  make  the  necessary 
provision  for  the  coming  colonists. 

Quinnipiac  was  found  to  be  occupied  by  a  small  tribe  of  Indians  num- 
bering forty-seven  men.  The  deed  which  surrendered  the  rights  of  the 
natives,  assigns  no  boundaries  to  the  tract,  but  conveys  their  entire  territory 
except  a  few  acres  reserved  for  planting,  to  Theophilus  Eaton  and  John 
Davenport.  Soon  after,  a  further  purchase  was  made  from  Montowese,  the 
Sachem  of  a  small  tribe  containing  only  ten  men,  of  a  tract  of  land  extend- 
ing ten  miles  southerly  from  what  is  now  the  south  part  of  Meriden,  and  five 
miles  west  and  seven  miles  east  from  the  Quinnipiac  river.  A  subsequent 
deed  added  two  miles  in  width  to  the  western  boundary  of  this  grant. 
These  indefinitely  worded  deeds  convey  the  title  to  the  original  town  of 
New  Haven,  which  included  East  Haven,  Branford,  North  Branford,  North 
Haven,  Wallingford  and  Cheshire,  together  with  parts  of  Orange,  Wood- 
bridge,  Bethany  and  Prospect,  besides  a  small  part  of  Meriden. 

Five  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  Town,  the  New  Haven  "  Colony'* 
was  established  by  uniting  in  one  jurisdiction  New  Haven,  Guilford,  Mil- 
ford,  Branford,  Stamford  (including  Greenwich),  and  Southold  on  Long 
Island.  It  remained  a  distinct  and  independent  colony  till  its  absorption 
by  Connecticut  under  the  charter  graiited  to  Gov.  Winthrop  by  Charles  II. 
in  the  year  1662.  As  the  New  Haven  Colony  was  settled  without  the 
authority  derived  from  a  charter,  it  reluctantly  acquiesced,  Dec.  14,  1664,  in 
ceasing  to  exist  as  a  separate  jurisdiction. 

Unlike  other  early  settlements,  New  Haven  was  designed  from  the  first  to 
be  a  commercial  town.  In  proportion  to  its  numbers,  it  was  the  wealthiest 
community  in  New  England.  Its  leading  men  had  been  engaged  in  foreign 


12 

trade  or  were  merchants  in  the  mother  country.  The  first  settlers  were  rep- 
resentatives of  widely  separated  English  homes,  but  they  were  banded 
together  by  their  earnest  religious  sympathies  and  by  their  common  desire 
to  establish  a  community  that  should  be  the  model  of  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent Christian  Commonwealth. 


1.  Six  men  under  the  direction  of  Joshua  Atwater,  a  merchant  of  Kent, 
England,  encamped  near  this   spot  in  the  winter  of  1637-8.     Winthrop's 
journal  says  that  the  snow  lay  in  New  England,  this  winter,  from  the  fourth 
of  November  to  the  twenty-third  of  March,  and  was  at  times  from  three  to 
four  feet  deep. 

2.  The  first  sermon  was  preached  here  by  Rev.  John  Davenport,  under  a 
huge  oak  tree,  April  25,  1638.     Tradition  says  that  the  afternoon  sermon 
was  by  Rev.  Peter  Prudden,  soon  afterwards  the  first  minister  of  Milford. 
Thomas   Buckingham,   ancestor   of    Gov.   Buckingham,   was    the   original 
proprietor  of  this  lot.     The  frame  house  fronting  Factory  street  was  the 
birth  place  of  Rev.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  father  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

3.*  The  "fundamental  agreement,"  which  determined  the  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  government  of  the  plantation,  was  made  in  Mr.  Newman's  barn, 
June  4,  1639.  By  it  the  elective  franchise  was  limited  to  church-members, 
who  formally  organized  the  civil  state,  October  25th,  1639,  when  their  magis- 
trates and  other  municipal  officers  were  first  chosen.  The  day  after,  an 
Indian  accused  of  murder,  was  arrested  and  tried  ;  confessed  his  guilt,  and 
"  accordingly  his  head  was  cut  off  the  next  day  and  pitched  upon  a  pole  in 
the  market  place."  Barbarous  as  this  mode  of  execution  may  seem  to  us, 
it  was  then  and  long  afterwards,  the  custom  in  the  mother  country.  The 
English  act,  providing  that  murderers  should  be  executed  the  day  but  one 
after  their  conviction,  was  not  repealed  till  1836. 

4.  Theophilus  Eaton,  first  magistrate  of  the  Town  and  Governor  of  the 
Colony,  was  annually  re-elected  till  his  death  in  January,  1658. 

5.  Rev.  John  Davenport,  an  ordained  clergyman  of  the  church  of  England, 
and  first  Pastor  in  New  Haven,  removed  in  1668  to  Boston,  where  he  died 
in  1670. 

*  The  numbers  referring  to  the  first  settlers  designate  only  the  lots  assigned 
them  and  not  their  buildings.  In  most  cases  tradition  has  failed  to 
identify  the  site  of  the  latter.  Newman's  barn  was  somewhere  on  the  lot  on 
Grove  street,  between  Dixwell's  corner  and  the  "  ordinary "  of  William 
Andrews.  When  the  residence  of  the  late  Prof.  Kingsley,  now  occupied 
by  his  son-in-law,  Henry  T.  Blake,  Esq.,  on  the  corner  of  Temple  and  Grove 
streets,  was  built  in  1824,  an  ancient  well  was  uncovered  just  east  of  the 
house.  This  well  was  doubtless  near  the  dwelling  of  Robert  Newman. 
The  position  of  the  "mighty  barn  "  is  uncertain  ;  a  suggestion  as  to  its  pos- 
sible site  is  connected  with  the  fact  that  the  broad  opening  to  the  original 
2d  Quarter  farming  lands,  now  the  entrance  of  Hillhouse  Avenue,  was 
opposite  to  the  present  barn  of  Mrs.  Henry  Trowbridge,  on  Grove  street. 


13 

6.  Stephen  Goodyear,  an  enterprising  merchant,  one  of  the  first  magis- 
trates of  the  town  and  Deputy  Governor  of  the  Colony,  died  in  London  in 
1658. 

7.  Matthew  Gilbert,  magistrate,  deacon  in  the  church,  and  in  1660  Deputy 
Governor  of  the  Colony,  died  in  1680. 

8.  Captain  Nathaniel  Turner  having  had  experience  in  the  Pecfuot  war, 
was  entrusted  with   "the  command  and  ordering  of   all  military  affairs." 
He  was  lost  in  "  the  great  shippe  "  in  1646. 

9.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  educated  at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge.     First 
school  teacher  in  New  Haven,  removed  to  Massachusetts  in  1651,  became 
master  of  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and  died  in  1708,  at  the  age  of  94. 

10.  Thomas  Pell,  surgeon  at  Saybrook  fort  and  in  the  Pequot  war,  mar- 
ried the  widow  of  Francis  Brewster,  the  original  owner  of  this  lot,  who  was 
lost  at  sea  in  Lamberton's  ship.     He  purchased   Pelham  Manor  in  West- 
chester  County,  N.  Y.,  and  died  at  Fairfield,  Conn.,  in  1669. 

11.  Nicholas  Augur,  practiced  medicine  in  New  Haven  from  1643  to  1676, 
when  he  perished  by  shipwreck  on  an  uninhabited  island  off  Cape  Sable. 

12.  Mark  Pierce,  public  surveyor  and  teacher  of  a  private  school. 

13.  William  Jones,  an   English  lawyer,  son-in-law  of   Governor  Eaton, 
came  to  New  Haven  in  1660,  was  active  in  opposing  the  union  of   New 
Haven  with  Connecticut,  became  Deputy  Governor  in  1691,  and  died  in 
1706. 

14.  David  Yale,  father  of  Elihu  Yale  (from  whom  the  College  is  named), 
and  brother-in-law  of  Governor  Edward  Hopkins,  the  founder  of  the  Gram- 
mar School,  removed  to  Boston  in  1645,  and  afterwards  returned  to  Eng- 
land. 

15.  William  Andrews,  keeper  of  the  first  "ordinary"  for  the  entertainment 
of  strangers. 

16.  Owen   Rowe.      His  name   is  affixed   to  the  death  warrant  of   King 
Charles  I.     He  was  associated  with  Eaton,   Davenport,  and  others  in  their 
scheme  of  settlement  here,  and  this  home  lot  was  assigned  to  him.     But  he 
remained  in  England  and  escaped  trial  as  a  regicide,  by  dying  in  the  Tower 
of  London. 

17.  John  Dixwell,  another  regicide,  lived  for  many  years  on  this  corner 
under  the  assumed  name  of  James  Davids,  and  died  here  in  1689  at  an 
advanced  age. 

18.  William    Hooke,  teacher  of   the  First  Church,  and   associated  with 
Davenport   as   Pastor.      He   returned   to   England   and   became   domestic 
Chaplain  to  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  was  cousin  to  his  wife.     She  was  sister 
to  Whalley  the  regicide,  whose  daughter  was  the  wife  of  the  regicide  Goffe. 
Both  of  these  parliamentary  generals  were  in  concealment  in  and  around 
New  Haven  for  more  than  two  years. 

19.  George  Lamberton,  Captain  of  the  great  ship  lost  at  sea  in  1646. 

20.  Thomas  Trowbridge,  Barbadoes  merchant,  died  at  Taunton,  England, 
in  1673. 

21.  Henry  Rutherford,  merchant,  ancestor  of  President  Hayes,  died   in 
1678.     His  widow  married  Governor  William  Leete  of  Guilford. 

22.  Thomas  Gregson,  merchant,  lost  at  sea  in  the  great  ship  in  1646. 

23.  John  Evance,  Barbadoes  merchant,  returned  to  England. 


24.  Isaac  Allerton,  the  leading  merchant  of  New  England,  one  of  the  Ply- 
mouth  pilgrims,  died  here  in  1659  ;  his  name  stands  between  those  of  Elder 
Brewster  and  Miles  Standish  in  the  covenant  made  by  the  founders  of  that 
commonwealth. 

25.  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  purchased  this  home 
lot  of  Richard  Malbon  and  resided  here  for  two  years — one  of  the  wisest 
and  best  men  among  the  early  immigrants. 

26.  Yale  College,  founded  at  Saybrook  in  1700,  removed  to  New  Haven 
in  1716.     The  first  building  of  wood,  170  feet  long  by  22  feet  broad,  and  three 
stories  high,  stood  on  the  College  grounds  near  the  corner  of  College  and 
Chapel  streets. 

27.  David  Wooster,  Major-General  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  resided  in 
this  house  and  died  at  Danbury  in  May,  1777,  from  wounds  received  in  bat- 
tle at  Ridgefield. 

28.  Roger  Sherman,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Senator 
in  Congress,  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  a  judge  of  the  Superior 
Court  and  first  Mayor  of  New  Haven,  built  this  house,  and  died  here  in 

1793- 

29.  James  Hillhouse,  Senator  in  Congress.     He  secured  the  avails  from 
the  sale  of  the  "  Western  Reserve "  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  as  a  perpetual 
fund  for  the  benefit  of  the  schools  of  his  native  State.    To  him  we  are 
indebted  for  the  elms  which  adorn  the  Green.     He  died  in  1832. 

30.  Noah  Webster,  author  of  the  American  Dictionary  of  the   English 
language,  built  this  house,  and  died  here  in  1843. 

31.  Eli  Whitney,  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin.     His  invention  made  a  revo- 
lution in  the  clothing  of  the  world.     He  resided  in  this  house,  where  he  died 
in  1825. 

32.  Andrew  H.  Foote,  Rear  Admiral   U.  S.  Navy,  born  in  this  house. 
After  having  rendered  his  country  distinguished  service  in  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion,  he  died  in  New  York  City,  June  26,  1863,  in  consequence  of  a 
wound  and  of  disease  contracted  at  Fort  Donelson. 

33.  Joseph  E.  Sheffield,  founder  of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School.     His 
gifts  to  the  school  amounted  to  more  than  $350,000. 

34.  Henry  Farnam,  a  benefactor  of  Yale  College.    This  building  is  named 
in   his  honor.     The  Farnam  drive  in  East   Rock    Park   was   constructed 
at  his  expense.     He  gave  liberal  aid  to  many  other  projects  for  the  public 
welfare. 

35.  Augustus  R.  Street.   For  the  encouragement  of  Art  in  New  Haven  and 
in  the  College,  he  erected  the  Art  Gallery  at  an  expense  of  nearly  $200,000. 
He  was  also  in  other  ways  a  liberal  benefactor  of  the  College. 

36.  Philip  Marett.     Late  in  life  he  became  a  resident  of  New  Haven,  and 
at  his  death,  in  1869,  left  a  noble  contingent  bequest,  to  found  a  free  Public 
Library  in  this  City  and  in  aid  of  the  New  Haven  Hospital,  and  the  two 
Orphan  Asylums. 

37.  The  original  "  meeting-house  "  of  the  first  church,  a  building  fifty  feet 
square,  stood  a  little  in  front  of  the  present  Center  church.     Its  construction 
was  ordered  in   1639.     For  more  than  a  century,  the  only  place  of  public 
worship  was  the  meeting  house  of  the  original  church. 


15 

38.  The   first   Episcopal    church   was  erected   in   1753,  although   Trinity 
Parish  was  organized  several  years  previous. 

39.  The  first  Methodist  church  erected  by  the  society  in  1807,  was  on  the 
east  side  of  Temple  street,  between  Crown  and  George  streets.     It  subse- 
quently became  the  African  Congregational  church.     The  site  is  now  occu- 
pied by  a  Synagogue  of  Russian  Jews. 

40.  The  first  Baptist   church,  now  the  New  Haven   Opera  House,  was 
erected  in  1822. 

41.  The  first  Roman  Catholic  church,  at  the  junction  of  York  street  and 
Davenport  avenue,  was  erected  in  1834. 

42.  The  first  Universalist  church  was  built  in   1871,  the  Society  having 
previously,  for  several  years,  worshiped  in  a  hall  on  the  southeast  corner 
of  Court  and  State  streets,  or  in  the  building  now  the  New  Haven  Opera 
House. 

43.  The  first  Synagogue,  on  Court  street,  was  formerly  the  place  of  wor- 
ship of  the  Third  Congregational  church. 

44.  The  oldest  building  in  the  city  is  the  little  structure  on  the  east  side 
of  State  street.     It  was  built  as  a  warehouse  by  Henry  Rutherford,  an  orig- 
inal planter. 

45.  The  oldest  dwelling  is  on  the  lot  north  of  the  Armory  in  Meadow 
street.     It  has  recently  been  removed  to  the  rear  of  the  lot.     It  was  built  by 
Thomas  Trowbridge,  Jr.,  in  1684. 

46.  The  first  ship-yard  was  near  the  corner  of  Meadow  and  West  Water 
streets.     Within  the  memory  of  the  living,  the  tide  came  up  to  the  south 
side  of  the  latter  street. 

47.  The  Lancasterian  School.     In  1822,  the  First  Methodist  Society  built 
a  large  church  on  this  corner  of  the  Green.     Its  basement  was  occupied  the 
same  year  for  a  public  school,  conducted  by  a  young  and  enthusiastic  Eng- 
lishman, a  favorite  pupil  of  Joseph  Lancaster  who  was  the  father  of  the  system 
of  monitorial  instruction.     John  E.  Lovell,  that  young  man,  now  in  the  94th 
year  of  his  age,  makes  glad  the  hearts  of  many  of  his  old  pupils  by  his 
presence  with  us  to-day. 

48.  Statue  of  Abraham  Pierson,  the  first  President  of  Yale  College. 

49.  The  first  State   House,  built  in   1717.      The  first  jail,  a  little  south, 
much  earlier. 

50.  The  first  burial  ground.     The  "  Founders  "  are  at  rest  under,  around 
and  in  the  rear  of  the  Center  church. 


The  first  generation  numbering  a  few  hundred,  "  whose  end  was  religion," 
established  here  a  free  commonwealth,  enforced  civil  order,  leveled  the 
forests,  bridged  the  streams,  laid  out  the  streets  of  our  beautiful  city,  and 
patrolled  the  town  by  night,  amid  summer  heats  and  winter  frosts,  with  mil- 
itary vigilance  We  have  entered  into  their  labors.  The  history  of  New 
Haven  for  the  past  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  is  on  record  in  Dwight's 
Statistical  Account,  Barber's  Histories,  Kingsley's  Centennial  Address, 
Bacon's  Historical  Discourses,  Atwater's  Colonial  History  and  History  of 
2 


i6 


the  City,  the  papers  of  the  Historical  Society  and  Levermore's  Republic  of 
New  Haven.  Within  the  memory  of  the  living,  the  population  was  almost 
exclusively  of  English  descent.  To-day  many  nationalities  find  prominent 
and  respected  representatives  in  our  exceptionally  harmonious  and  pros- 
perous community,  Fifty  years  from  now  will  tell  the  story  of  what  the 
eighty  thousand  inhabitants  of  to-day  have  done  to  justify  a  centennial 
jubilee  in  the  year  1938.  Much  of  this  history  will  depend  upon  the  char- 
acter and  intelligence  of  those  who  are  now  children  in  our  schools. 
God  save  the  Commonwealth  ! 


ORDER  OF  PROCESSION. 


POLICE. 

WHEELER  &  WILSON'S  BAND. 
Chief  Marshal,  Major  T.  ATTWATER   BARNES. 

AIDS. 

Captain  FRANK  A.  MONSON,  Chief  of  Staff;  Captain  FRED.  H.  WALDRON, 

Assistant  Marshals  ;   Major  J.  E.  STETSON,  ELLIOTT  H.  MORSE, 

THOMAS  J.  FARLEY,  WILLIAM  J.  LUM,  JOHN  C.  NORTH. 

FIRST   DIVISION. 

Military. 

MARSHAL — Major  Ruel  P.  Cowles. 

ASSISTANT  MARSHALS — Major  William  A.  Lincoln,  Engineer  William  S. 
Wells,  Quartermaster  William  E.  Morgan,  Captain  James  N.  Coe,  Milo 
D.  Tuttle,  Leonard  Bostwick,  F.  C.  Lum,  E.  Dickerman,  S.  S.  Thompson, 
Major  C.  W.  Blakeslee,  Jr. 

SECOND   REGIMENT,   CONNECTICUT  NATIONAL  GUARD. 

Colonel  W.  J.  Leavenworth,  commanding. 

Second  Regiment  Band  (American),  New  Haven,  John  P.  Stack,  Leader. 
Regimental  Drum  and  Trumpet  Corps. 

Regimental  Signal  Corps. 

FIELD  AND  STAFF — Colonel  Walter  J.  Leavenworth,  Lieutenant  Colonel 
John  B.  Doherty,  Major  Frank  T.  Lee,  Adjutant,  Captain  Thomas  T. 
Wells,  Quartermaster,  Lieutenant  F.  J.  Duffy,  Paymaster,  Lieutenant 
William  H.  Newton,  Surgeon,  Major  Evelyn  L.  Bissell,  Assistant  Sur- 
geon, Lieutenant  Carl  E.  Munger,  Inspector  of  Rifle  Practice,  Captain 
Andrew  Allen,  Signal  Officer,  Lieutenant  William  E.  Jackson,  Chap- 
lain, Rev.  J.  E.  Twitchell. 

Co.  K,  Captain  Bryant  A.  Treat. 

Co.  G,  Captain  Alfred  J.  Wolf. 

Co.  H,  Captain  Wesley  U.  Pearne. 

Co.  C,  Captain  Timothy  F.  Callahan. 

Co.  E,  Captain  Theodore  H.  Sucher. 

Co.  A,  Captain  Luci.en  F.  Burpee. 

Co.  B,  Captain  John  Gutt. 

Co.  I,  Captain  Charles  A.  Bowen. 

Co.  F,  Captain  Charles  C.  Ford. 

Co.  D,  Captain  Andrew  H.  Embler. 

Non-commissioned  Staff. 


i8 

SECOND  MACHINE  GUN  PLATOON. 

Gatling  Gun,  Second  Lieutenant  William  H.  Sears  commanding. 
Co.  A,  FIFTH  BATTALION,  C.  N.  G. 

Captain  Daniel  S.  Lathrop. 
First  Lieutenant  Daniel  Tilgh,  Second  Lieutenant  Charles  E.  Fuller. 

Wallingford  Band. 
SECOND  Co.  GOVERNOR'S  FOOT  GUARDS  (CHARTERED  1775). 

Captain, . 

First  Lieutenant  Albert  M.  Johnson,  Second  Lieutenant  Joseph  J.  Wooster. 
Carriages  containing  His  Excellency,  Phineas  C.  Lounsbury,  Governor  and 

Commander-in-Chief. 

STAFF — Adjutant  General,  Brigadier  General  Frederick  E.  Camp  ;  Quarter- 
master General,  Brigadier  General  Charles  Olmstead  ;  Surgeon  Gen- 
eral, Brigadier  General  Charles  J.  Fox  ;  Commissary  General,  Brigadier 
General  John  B.  Clapp  ;  Paymaster  General,  Brigadier  General  Charles 
H.  Pine  ;  Aide-de-Camps,  Colonel  Samuel  B.  Home,  Colonel  Selah  G. 
Blakeman,  Colonel  J.  Dwight  Chaffee,  Colonel  Edwin  H.  Matthewson  ; 
Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Colonel  George  M.  White ;  Assistant 
Quartermaster  General,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Henry  C.  Morgan  ;  Exec- 
utive Secretary,  George  P.  McLean. 

SECOND  Co.  GOVERNOR'S  HORSE  GUARD  (CHARTERED  1808). 

Major  H.  H.  Strong,  Captain  W.  Burr  Hall,  First  Lieutenant  D.  A.  Blakeslee, 

Second  Lieutenant  Luzerne  Ludington,  Cornet  F.  L.  Newton, 

Quartermaster  Isaac  W.  Hine. 


Grand    Army    of  the   Republic.    (Founded  1866.) 
DEPARTMENT  OF  CONNECTICUT.    (Organized  1866.) 

Meriden  City  Band,  Walter  Phoenix,  Leader. 

Admiral  Foote  Post,  No.  17  (Chartered  1866).    400  men. 

Commander  Lewis  B.  Brown  ;  Adjutant  E.  C.  Dow. 

Henry  C.  Merwin  Post,  No.  52. 
Commander  John  J.  Brennan  ;  Adjutant  Samuel  Morris. 

Drum  Corps. 

Gen.  Von  Steinwehr  Post,  No.  76  (Chartered  1885). 

Commander  Weigand  Schlein  ;   Adjutant  Joseph  Schleicher. 

SONS  OF  VETERANS. 

Drum  Corps. 
Nathan  Hale  Camp,  No.  i,  Captain  Fred.  Chadeayne. 

N.  E.  Lincoln,  First  Sergeant. 

Carriages  containing  the  Board  of  Selectmen  of  the  Town,  the  Mayor  and 
Common  Council  of  the  City,  the  Orator  of  the  Day,  Henry  T.  Blake, 
and  Delegation  from  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  Society. 
The  ship  "  Constitution  "  on  a  decorated  float.     (Found  in  the  British  Chan- 
nel in  1768,  and  frequently  carried  in  processions  in  New  Haven.) 


'9 

SECOND   DIVISION. 
Civic  Societies. 

MARSHAL — Brigadier  General  Charles  B.  Foster, 
Commanding  Third  Brigade,  Patriarchs  Militant. 

ASSISTANT  MARSHALS — Colonel  Peter  Terhune,  F.  H.aWheeler,  Major  H.  S. 
Cooper,  George  H.  Rowland,  Major  H.  C.  Goodwin,  Colonel  E.  F. 
Durand,  Major  F.  F.  Monson,  Capt.  J.  H.  Menvin,  Major  John  Saunders, 
Sergeant  Major  W.  H.  Harrison,  Captain  S.  T.  Lines,  Major  S.  H.  Hull, 
Captain  F.  B.  Lane,  James  Geary,  Captain  Ferguson,  Thomas  F. 
McGinniss,  Captain  J.  P.  Merrow,  James  Snigg,  J.  F.  Brannagan,  James 
T.  Brennan,  Martin  Kinare,  B.  E.  Elmstedt. 

Landrigan's  Band,  J.  J.  Landrigan,  Leader. 
FIRST  BATTALION  PATRIARCHS  MILITANT. 

Major  C.  C.  Smith,  commanding. 

Grand  Canton  Sassacus,  No.  i,  Captain  John  S.  Hinman. 

Grand  Canton  Golden  Rule,  No.  3,  Captain  Morris  A.  Ray. 

Canton  Aurora,  No.  13,  Captain  Frank  Meyer. 

KNIGHTS  OF  PYTHIAS. 

Comstock  Division,  No.  2,  Captain  W.  H.  Durand. 
Hermann  Division,  No.  3,  Captain  Martin  Nagel. 

ORDER  OF  UNITED  AMERICAN  MECHANICS. 
ASSISTANT  MARSHALS — Frank  Hutchings,  W.  O.  Staples. 

Columbia  Band,  New  Britain. 

Unity  Commandery,  No.  2,  First  Lieutenant  J.  H.  Scranton,  Marshal. 
National  and  State  Officers,  State  Council  of  Connecticut. 

Pioneer  Council,  No.  I,  L.  P.  Korn,  Marshal. 

Washington  Council,  No.  7,  R.  S.  Duff,  Marshal. 

Garfield  Council,  No.  14,  George  Gesner,  Marshal. 

IMPROVED  ORDER  OF  RED  MEN. 

Hammonassett  Tribe,  No.  I. 

Seventy-five  braves,  John  E.  Hunt,  Great  Senior  Sagamore,  with  delegations 
from  Paugasset  Tribe,  No.  3,  Danbury,  Pootatuck  Tribe,  No.  8,  Bir- 
mingham, and  the  Pequot  Club,  Birmingham. 
KNIGHTS  OF  COLUMBUS. 

Weed's  Band. 

Assistant  Marshal  Thomas  F.  Campbell  in  command.  Aids — Patrick  T. 
Carrigan,  James  Cavanaugh,  Henry  Conlan,  John  E.  McPartland,  John 
Coyne,  James  P.  Gallivan. 

San  Salvador  Council,  No.  I,  Grand  Knight,  Alexander  Bieto. 

Santa  Maria  Council,  No.  8,  Grand  Knight,  Thomas  F.  Coffee. 

Columbia  Council,  No.  20. 

Elm  City  Council,  No.  25. 

Loyal  Council,  No.  30. 
Decorated  Float  with  Tableaux,  representing  "  The  Landing  of  Columbus," 

for  whom  the  order  is  named. 

KNIGHTS  OF  ST.  PATRICK — James   Reilly,  President ;   Frank  W.  Tiernan, 
Secretary  ;   in  carriages. 


20 

SWEDISH  SOCIETIES — John  Sampson,  Thomas  Broms,  Assistant  Marshals. 

Bethesda  Benevolent  Society — John  Johnson,  President. 

Viking  Society — Adolph  F.  Bergholm,  President. 

ITALIAN  SOCIETIES — L.  di  Bella,  Assistant  Marshal. 

Columbia  Drum  Corps. 
Fratellanza  Italia  (Organized  1883). 

President  L.  di  Matteo,  Marshal  Paul  Russo,  Commander  Garabaldi,  Presi- 
dent A.  Tacinelli,  Captain  A.  Manns,  Assistant  Marshals  E.  L.  Del  Grego, 
L/G.  Garabaldi,  President  L.  di  Bella,  Assistant  Marshal  R.  De  Vita. 
The   C.   Columbus    Political    Independents — President    D.    Spinnetteo, 

Assistant  Marshal  M.  Barletta. 
BICYCLE  CLUB — Captain  Charles  E.  Larom. 


THIRD   DIVISION. 
Schools. 

MARSHAL— Samuel  T.  Dutton. 

AIDS— Major  George  H.  Larned,  Albert  B.  Fifield,  C.  T.  Driscoll,  Dr.  W.  H. 
Carmalt,  Thomas  Hooker,  Henry  W.  Farnam,  J.  R.  French,  Rev.  E.  S. 
Lines,  E.  A.  Callahan,  Simon  Shoninger,  Arthur  Ruickoldt,  George  B. 
Kurd,  S.  G.  Pease,  Rev.  I.  C.  Meserve,  B.  E.  Lynch,  Wm.  H.  Brown, 
F.  M.  Adler,  J.  J.  Kennedy,  Rev.  A.  P.  Miller. 

Landerer's  Band. 

S.  M.  Munson,  Samuel  A.  Stevens,  Assistant  Marshals. 
Carriages  containing  John  E.  Lovell,  Hon.  Henry  B.  Harrison,  Hon.  James 

E.  English,  John  C.  Bradley. 
Carriages  containing  former  pupils  of  Lancasterian  School. 

Lancasterian  Veterans. 
Members  of  other  schools  that  appeared  in  the  parade  in  1838. 

Malcolm  Booth,  Assistant  Marshal. 
The  Hopkins  Grammar  School  Company,  Capt.  John  S.  Schoonover. 

Hillhouse  High  School  Company,  F.  M.  Lloyd,  Captain. 
Carriages  containing  Board  of  Education  and  Principals  of  Schools. 
Grammar  School  Guard,  Henry  W.  Loomis,  Assistant  Marshal ;  Dwight 
School  Company,  Jerry  Donovan,  Captain  ;  Webster  School  Company, 
Albert  Richter,  Captain ;  Welch  School  Company,  John  Reynolds, 
Captain  ;  Washington  School,  Company  A,  Thomas  Moore,  Captain  ; 
Washington  School,  Company  B,  Thomas  Bergen,  Captain  ;  Skinner 
School  Company,  James  Veech,  Captain ;  Eaton  School  Company, 
C.  F.  Bassett,  Captain  ;  Woolsey  School  Company,  E.  J.  Smith,  Cap- 
tain ;  Hamilton  School  Company,  John  Rodican,  Captain ;  Wooster 
School  Company,  Ralph  True,  Captain ;  Winchester  School  Company, 
Walter  Frey,  Captain ;  St.  Francis  School,  Frank  Shanahan,  Captain  ; 
St.  John's  School,  New  Grammar  School,  Westville  Public  School. 


21 

FOURTH   DIVISION   (IN  TWO  SECTIONS). 

Firemen. 

MARSHAL — Hiram  Camp. 

ASSISTANT  MARSHALS — William    F.   Vogel,    Edward    O'Brien,    Lawrence 

O'Brien,  H.  A.  Stevens. 

Band. 

FIRST  SECTION. 

New  Haven  Veteran  Firemen's  Association. 

Hiram  Camp,  President ;   George  W.  Stoddard,  Secretary. 

Fifty  men  with  hand  engine  Volunteer. 

Drum  Corps. 

Sons  of  Veteran  Firemen.     Chas.  Doty,  President ;  Geo.  Allen,  Secretary. 
Forty  men  with  hose  carriage. 

Hubbard  Drum  Corps. 

Winchester  Hose  Company,  No.  i  (Organized  1881). 

Henry  S.  Hamilton,  Foreman  ;    A.  L.  Woodcock,  Secretary. 

Fifty  men  with  hose  carriage. 

Sassacus  Drum  Corps. 
Fire  Department  Fair  Haven,  East.     H.  A.  Stevens,  Chief. 

SECOND   SECTION. 
.New  Haven  Fire  Department. 

Meriden  Military  Band. 

Chief,  Albert  C.  Hendrick  ;  Assistant  Chief,  Andrew  J.  Kennedy  ;  Assistant 
Chief,  William  C.  Smith  ;  Assistant  Chief,  John  L.  Disbrow. 

Steamer  Co.  No.  i,  Capt.  Edward  I.  Barrett ;  Steamer  Co.  No.  2,  Capt. 
William  H.  Hubbard  ;  Steamer  Co.  No.  3,  Capt.  Charles  B.  Dyer ; 
Steamer  Co.  No.  4,  Capt.  Christopher  T.  Langley ;  Hook  and  Ladder 
Co.  No.  i,  Capt.  Charles  H.  Hilton  ;  Steamer  Co.  No.  5,  Capt.  Henry 
Tuttle  ;  Steamer  Co.  No.  6,  Capt.  Wilfred  F.  Spang ;  Hose  Co.  No.  7, 
Capt.  John  W.  Stoddard  ;  Steamer  Co.  No.  8,  Capt.  James  J.  Bradnack  ; 
Hook  and  Ladder  Co.  No.  3,  Capt.  Henry  J.  Wilson. 

The  several  sections  of  the  procession  were  formed  on  the  lower  Green, 
Elm  and  Temple  streets,  under  their  division  commanders,  and  at  10.45 
moved  out  of  the  south  gate  of  the  Green  over  the  following  streets : 
Chapel,  Church,  George,  College,  Chapel,  York,  Elm,  College,  Grove, 
Orange,  Elm,  Grand,  St.  John,  Olive,  Green,  Wooster  Place,  Chapel,  Church, 
Elm,  to  the  north  gate  of  the  Green. 

At  the  City  Hall  the  procession  was  reviewed  by  Governor  Lounsbury 
and  Staff,  and  the  City  and  Town  officials,  and  was  dismissed  at  I  P.  M. 

After  the  review  by  the  Governor,  the  2d  Regiment  gave  a  dress  parade 
on  the  Green,  which  was  viewed  by  thousands  of  citizens. 


ORDER   OF  EXERCISES   AT  CENTER  CHURCH. 


Master  of  Ceremonies,  Pres.  TIMOTHY  D  WIGHT,  D.D. 
VOLUNTARY,  ORGAN — Theme  and  Variations,          -         -        Ancient  Melody 
OPENING  PRAYER,    -  By  President  Timothy  Dwight.  D.D. 

SINGING  BY  THE  CHOIR — "Te  Deum  Laudamus." 

READING  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES,  By  Rev.  E.  E.  Beardsley,  D.D. 

READING  OF  DR.  BACON'S  HYMN,  -        -         By  Rev.  Newman  Smyth,  D.D. 

O  God,  beneath  thy  guiding  hand, 

Our  exiled  fathers  crossed  the  sea ; 
And  when  they  trod  the  wintry  strand, 

With  prayer  and  psalm  they  worshiped  thee. 

Thou  heard'st,  well  pleased,  the  song,  the  prayer, 

Thy  blessing  came  ;  and  still  its  power 
Shall  onward  through  all  ages  bear 

The  memory  of  that  holy  hour. 

Laws,  freedom,  truth,  and  faith  in  God 

Came  with  those  exiles  o'er  the  waves  ; 
And  where  their  pilgrim  feet  have  trod, 

The  God  they  trusted  guards  their  graves. 

And  here  thy  name,  O  God  of  love, 

Their  children's  children  shall  adore, 
Till  these  eternal  hills  remove, 

And  spring  adorns  the  earth  no  more. 

ORATION, -  By  Henry  T.  Blake,  Esq. 

SINGING  BY  THE  CHOIR — Hymn  "America." 

PRAYER, By  Rev.  G.  E.  Reed,  D.D. 

DOXOLOGY. 
BENEDICTION, By  Rev.  S.  D.  Phelps,  D.D. 

POSTLUDE  IN  E  FLAT, -        -         Wely 

Seats  reserved  until  ten  minutes  before  2  p.  M.  for  invited  guests. 


The  Choir  were  the  Quartette  and  Chorus  of  Center  Church,  tinder  the  direction 
of  the  Organist,  Mr.  S.  A'.  Ford. 


ORATION 

By  HENRY  T.  BLAKE. 


Fellow  Townsmen  of  New  Haven  : 

The  Law  of  Moses,  which  the  founders  of  New  Haven 
adopted  as  an  "  annex  "  to  the  civil  code  of  their  Colony,  com- 
manded that  every  fiftieth  year  after  the  arrival  of  the  chosen 
people  in  the  promised  land  should  be  observed  as  a  year  of 
jubilee.  "  On  the  tenth  day  of  the  seventh  month,  in  the  day 
of  atonement,  ye  shall  make  the  trumpet  to  sound  throughout 
all  your  land  ;  and  ye  shall  hallow  the  5o£h  year  and  proclaim 
liberty  throughout  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 
There  is  therefore,  a  peculiar  fitness  in  our  assembling  to  cel- 
ebrate this  25oth  anniversary  of  the  first  settlement  of  this 
town  as  if  in  obedience  to  the  organic  law  of  the  Common- 
wealth. And  in  further  compliance  with  that  law,  the  trumpets 
having  now  ceased  to  sound,  it  behooves  me  as  my  first  and 
foremost  duty  on  this  occasion  "  to  proclaim  liberty  through- 
out the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof."  Among  the 
80,000  residents  of  New  Haven  the  descendants  of  its  founders 
form  a  very  small  proportion.  Probably  those  who  were  born 
within  its  limits  are  but  a  minority.  But  to-day  the  town  itself 
has  been  re-born.  By  our  common  action  it  has  been  settled 
anew  ;  it  has  been  re-founded.  Henceforth,  then,  we  are  all 
original  settlers, — all  town  born  !  Welcome,  then,  ye  who 
were  hitherto  aliens,  to  the  rights,  privileges  and  immunities 
of  that  favored  condition  !  Welcome  to  your  proprietary 
interests  in  the  market-place  and  in  the  outlying  lands  that 


24 

may  still  remain  undivided  in  the  Oyster-shell  fields,  in  the 
Ox-pasture,  or  about  the  savory  precincts  of  Ditch-Corner  ! 
No  more  on  shipboard  in  stress  of  weather  shall  your  goods 
be  first  consigned  with  "  ghoulish  glee  "  to  sacrifice  ;  and  the 
ignominious  epithet  of  "interloper"  shall  lapse  henceforth 
into  "  innocuous  desuetude." 

It  is  possible  that  some  of  you  do  not  fully  appreciate  the 
dignity  of  the  birthright  into  which  you  have  thus  been 
inducted.  Possibly  you  may  not  readily  perceive  how  close 
relationship  to  the  town  of  New  Haven  can  add  materially  to 
the  honor  already  possessed  by  respected  and  influential  free- 
men of  the  city.  You  may  reason  perhaps  that  one  who  has 
formed  a  union  with  the  blooming  and  vigorous  daughter  has 
no  especial  inducement  to  cultivate  intimate  associations  with 
an  ancient  mother-in-law.  It  is  true  that  the  Town  organiza- 
tion, that  original  republic  of  historic  importance  and  historic 
fame  has  during  the  last  two  generations  been  crowded  into 
the  back  ground  by  its  bustling  and  ambitious  municipal 
offspring.  One  by  one  it  has  been  shorn  of  its  former  prerog- 
atives and  honors  until  now  it  exists  but  a  shadow  of  its  former 
self,  having  nearly  outlived  its  usefulness  ;  a  faded  and  crumb- 
ling relic  of  the  past ;  like  that  classic  edifice  (oh  !  breathe  not 
its  name)  which  rears  its  stately  but  dilapidated  form  in  our 
midst,  a  ghost  of  departed  glory,  and  which  like  the  ghost  of 
Banquo,  will  never  down  !  At  the  time  of  the  last  centennial 
celebration,  the  Town  as  a  civil  and  political  entity  was  still 
paramount.  The  City  was  hardly  more  than  an  annex  or 
adjunct  to  it.  The  changes  which  have  brought  about  the 
reversal  of  their  respective  positions  have  all  occurred  within 
the  last  fifty  years,  and  most  of  them  are  still  fresh  in  the 
memories  of  our  citizens  even  of  those  of  middle  life.  At  this 
half-way  point  of  the  century  a  brief  sketch  of  those  changes 
will  be  appropriate.  But  a  detailed  historical  recital  of  them 
is  quite  unnecessary  and  might  be  tedious  ;  the  more  so  as  full 
and  accessible  records  of  them  all  exist  in  the  files  of  the  local 


25 

newspapers,  the  excellent  history  of  New  Haven  by  Levermore 
and  in  numerous  valuable  papers  in  the  volumes  of  the  New 
Haven  Historical  society  and  elsewhere.  And  as  to  the  rest  of 
the  acts  of  this  Commonwealth,  and  the  lives  of  its  mighty 
men,  and  all  that  they  did,  are  they  not  written  in  the  Book  of 
the  Chronicles  of  the  City  of  New  Haven  published  by  Mun- 
sell  ?  I  shall  therefore  on  this  occasion,  during  the  hour  or  so 
that  is  allotted  me,  attempt  no  more  than  a  reference  to  some 
of  the  phases  of  change  through  which  the  rural  town  has 
developed  in  less  than  a  lifetime  into  a  crowded  and  busy 
metropolis.  Such  a  retrospect  I  trust  will  be  pleasing  to  those 
who  will  remember  the  various  matters  to  which  I  shall  allude, 
as  part  of  their  own  personal  history ;  instructive  to  later 
comers  whether  by  birth  or  change  of  residence  ;  and  more  or 
less  interesting  to  our  descendants  as  a  record  of  impressions 
produced  by  events  of  the  first  half  of  the  century  on  those 
who  were  actors  in  it. 

In  1838  New  Haven  was  little  more  than  an  overgrown  but 
still  growing  country  village.  Its  population  was  about  13,500 
and  of  this  number  probably  little  over  500,  if  so  many,  were  of 
foreign  birth.  The  business  part  of  the  town  was  confined  to 
Chapel  street  between  Church  and  State,  State  and  Fleet  streets 
to  the  head  of  the  wharf,  and  Church  street  from  Chapel  to 
Crown.  The  architectural  glories  of  this  region  were  the 
Exchange  Building  and  Street  Building,  both  then  recently 
erected.  The  dwelling  houses  of  the  town  were  almost  uni- 
versally of  wood,  and  outside  of  the  business  district  a  brick 
erection  was  looked  upon  with  some  pride  as  giving  a  metro- 
politan air  to  the  place.  What  was  then  called  "  the  thickly 
settled  "  portion  of  the  town  was  substantially  bounded  on  the 
north  by  Grove  street,  on  the  east  by  Olive  street,  Brewery 
street  and  Wooster  place  and  on  the  west  by  York  street  and 
Broadway.  Outside  of  these  limits  and  even  from  many  points 
of  view  within  them,  the  vision  passed  unobstructed  outwards 


26 

across  an  open  country  with  here  and  there  a  dwelling.  Fair 
Haven,  better  known  as  "  Dragon,"  and  Westville,  then  gener- 
ally denominated  "  Hotchkisstown,"  were  outlying  hamlets 
separated  from  New  Haven  proper  by  open  fields  traversed  by 
sandy  and  shadeless  roads. 

There  was  a  line  of  daily  steamboats  to  New  York  :  there 
were  also  two  daily  stages  to  Hartford,  which  made  the  trip  in 
six  hours  when  the  roads  were  good  ;  and  daily  or  less  fre- 
quent stages  to  some  of  the  adjoining  towns.  The  railroad  to 
Hartford  was  not  opened  till  1839,  though  the  Centennial 
medal,  with  pardonable  anticipation  represents  a  train  of  cars 
merrily  spinning  along  in  front  of  the  churches  on  the  Green. 
Nearly  every  highway  of  communication  with  the  surrounding 
country  was  turnpiked  and  barred  by  gates  with  heavy  rates  of 
toll.  There  were  the  Milford  turnpike,  the  Derby  turnpike, 
the  Litchfield  turnpike,  the  Cheshire  turnpike,  the  Hartford 
turnpike,  the  Middletown  turnpike,  and  the  Branford  turn- 
pike. A  drive  to  Bridgeport  and  back  in  a  one-horse  carnage 
cost  75  cents  for  tolls.  There  was  considerable  traffic  by 
wagons  with  the  Naugatuck  Valley,  afterwards  transferred  to 
Bridgeport  by  the  construction  of  the  Naugatuck  Railroad  ; 
but  the  great  public  work  and  avenue  of  inland  commerce  was 
the  Farmington  canal,  which  had  been  finally  carried  through 
to  Northampton  in  1835.  As  a  picturesque  feature  of  the  town, 
and  as  a  source  of  water  supply  in  some  cases  of  fire,  as  well 
as  in  furnishing  additional  skating  and  swimming  accommoda- 
tions for  the  boys,  it  was  a  partial  success  ;  but  as  a  speculative 
enterprise  it  was  a  gloomy  Styx  for  New  Haven  capital,  a 
melancholy  bourne  from  which  no  dollar  ever  returned.  In 
1838  it  had  a  line  of  fast  passenger  packets  to  Northampton 
on  a  time-table  of  26  hours  ;  and  the  route  on  account  of  its 
speed  and  comfort  was  occasionally  patronized.  The  freight 
business  was  confined  to  one  and  sometimes  two  boats  per 
day  during  the  open  season,  that  is  to  say  about  eight 
months  in  the  year,  each  boat  being  somewhat  larger  than  an 


27 

ordinary  railroad  car,  and  the  cargoes  consisted  of  hides,  flour, 
coffee  and  other  like  bulky  goods  in  one  direction,  and  cord- 
wood  and  general  farm  products  in  the  other.  Freights  to 
Boston  went  entirely  by  water,  a  schooner  running  regularly 
once  a  fortnight.  There  was  also  a  coasting  trade  with  other 
domestic  ports,  and  an  active  foreign  commerce,  principally 
with  the  West  Indies  ;  so  that  Long  Wharf  generally  presented 
a  lively  scene,  with  vessels  arriving  and  departing,  molasses 
and  sugar  unloading  and  horses  and  mules  embarking  in  a 
state  of  "pernicious  activity." 

The  manufacturing  industries  of  New  Haven  in  1838  were 
regarded  with  pride  by  its  citizens,  although  in  comparison 
with  those  of  the  present  day  they  seem  but  few  and  simple. 
By  the  census  returns  of  1840  the  total  capital  employed  in 
manufacturing  was  $921,000.  Of  this  amount  the  largest  invest- 
ment is  assigned  to  tanneries,  of  which  five  are  reported,  with 
a  total  capital  of  $101,700  and  an  annual  product  of  $380,000. 
The  next  largest  industry  was  carriage  making,  with  twelve 
factories,  an  aggregate  capital  of  $101,000  and  a  product  in 
1839  of  $234,000,  though  this  is  probably  below  the  average. 
There  were  several  printing  and  binding  establishments,  and 
$40,000  was  invested  in  the  manufacture  of  furniture.  There 
were  also  in  1838  an  ax  factory  and  a  carpet  factory,  both  of 
which,  however,  soon  succumbed.  Boots  and  shoes  and  cloth- 
ing were  made  to  some  extent.  Hardware  manufacturing  had 
just  started  in  a  small  way,  its  principal  seat  being  Westville. 
There  were  also  three  small  iron  foundries.  A  limited  and 
mostly  local  trade  in  Dragon  oysters  was  carried  on  at  Fair 
Haven,  but  the  oyster  beds  were  generally  free  to  the  public, 
and  the  great  business  of  oyster  culture  has  since  been  en- 
tirely developed. 

When  we  compare  these  statistics  with  those  of  1888,  the 
total  manufacturing  capital  increased  from  $921,000  to  about 
$20,000,000,  the  annual  carriage  product  from  $234,000  to 
$2,000,000  ;  the  hardware  business,  then  just  started,  grown  to 


28 

over  $2,500,000  annual  production,  and  the  total  annual 
product  of  all  manufactures  amounting  to  some  30,000,000 
of  dollars,  we  realize  the  change  which  fifty  years  have 
effected  in  the  volume  and  methods  of  business  operations. 
As  transportation  was  everywhere  slow  and  expensive,  the 
market  for  manufactured  goods  was  necessarily  limited,  and 
though  in  the  absence  of  sharp  competition  the  profits  were 
relatively  large,  yet  they  aggregated  but  little.  Hand  labor  or 
simple  machinery  run  by  water  power  were  practically  the  sole 
agencies  of  production.  It  is  doubtful  whether  there  were  in 
1838  five  steam  engines  in  New  Haven.  Business  corporations 
for  manufacturing  or  mercantile  purposes  were  as  yet  almost 
unknown,  and  a  business  enterprise  with  a  capital  of  $10,000 
was  esteemed  a  large  concern. 

Coal  was  just  beginning  to  be  used  as  fuel,  but  in  the  absence 
of  railroad  transportation  from  the  mines  the  supply  was  of 
course  small,  and  the  cost  of  it  heavy.  Gas  was  not  introduced 
till  ten  years  later.  Whale  oil  lamps  and  candles  within  doors 
gave  forth  their  feeble  and  flickering  gleams,  while  the  streets 
unlighted  and  unpaved  were  beds  of  bottomless  dirt  er  fathom- 
less mud,  where  at  night  blind  led  blind  and  both  fell  into  the 
ditch.  Friction  matches  had  begun  to  supplant  the  old  flint 
and  steel  and  tinder  boxes,  and  while  accepted  as  a  great 
domestic  convenience,  were  looked  upon  with  apprehension  as 
increasing  the  chances  of  accidental  and  incendiary  fires  ;  and 
of  these  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  water  there  was  constant 
dread.  Hence  when  the  alarm  of  "  fire  "  was  heard,  which  was 
often,  the  whole  community  was  at  once  in  a  turmoil.  Houses, 
churches  and  all  places  of  public  resort  were  instantly  emptied. 
A  chorus  of  universal  cries  filled  Heaven's  concave.  Every 
bell  pealed  forth  an  unceasing  clamor  ;  while  the  seven  hand 
fire  engines  drawn  by  shouting  men  flew  like  demoniac  chariots 
along  the  sidewalks  in  as  many  different  directions,  unguided 
by  any  system  of  signals,  each  company  on  its  own  account 
hunting  for  the  flames,  and  each  a  little  too  anxious  to  secure 


29 

the  ten  dollars  reward  for  a  first  appearance  at  the  fire  to 
impart  any  private  information  of  its  locality  to  a  rival.  Not 
infrequently  the  whole  excitement  arose  from  a  false  alarm, 
but  if  not,  when  the  fire  was  discovered,  if  the  building  had 
not  already  burned  down,  the  spectators  were  formed  in  long 
lines  by  the  fire  marshal  to  every  well,  cistern  and  barrel  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  water  was  passed  to  the  engines  by  hand 
in  leathern  fire  buckets,  which  every  householder  was  required 
by  law  to  keep  for  this  purpose,  and  to  send  or  bring  to  the 
spot  in  such  emergencies. 

The  town  and  city  organizations  reflected  the  simplicity  and 
democratic  usages  of  the  times.  Of  the  city  government  I 
will  only  speak  so  far  as  to  illustrate  the  limited  sphere  which 
it  occupied  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  Its  charter 
powers  were  very  narrow,  and  owing  to  the  restrictions  placed 
upon  their  exercise  were  only  partially  availed  of.  Up  to  1857 
no  by-law  passed  by  the  Court  of  Common  Council  was  valid 
till  approved  of  by  a  popular  vote,  and  even  then  it  was  liable 
to  be  repealed  by  the  Superior  Court  if  found  unjust  or  un- 
reasonable. In  1854  a  city  meeting  forbade  the  Common 
Council  to  appropriate  more  than  $100  at  any  one  time  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  people.  It  will  easily  be  inferred  that 
all  public  improvements  languished  of  which  the  city  had 
jurisdiction  ;  since  every  attempt  to  establish  them  or  even 
a  systematic  watch  and  police  was  compelled  to  encounter  the 
opposition  in  public  meeting  of  interested  parties  as  well  as 
the  general  taxpayer's  cry  of  extravagance.  That  old  fash- 
ioned conservative  spirit  which  still  lingers  among  us  would 
not  be  beguiled  or  driven  into  a  reckless  race  of  municipal 
development.  It  clung  to  the  town  idea  as  paramount  and 
kept  the  city  administration  in  leading-strings.  In  1838  the 
salary  of  the  first  selectman  was  $500,  while  that  of  the  mayor 
was  only  $200,  and  a  similar  disproportion  continued  as  late 
as  1860. 


30 

As  the  town  was  the  dominant  organization  in  civil  affairs, 
so  the  first  selectman  was  the  highest  representative  of  civic 
dignity.     And  what  old  resident  that  hears  a  reference  to  the 
first  selectman  in  1838  will  fail  to  recall  the  image  of  Captain 
Benjamin  Beecher  who  filled  that  office  from  1834  to  1849.     A 
short,  beaming  faced,  active  man  of  genial  mould,  a  prince  of 
good  fellows,  one  of   the  celebrities  of  New  Haven  for  two 
generations.     A  sloop  and  steamboat  captain  eke  was  he,  of 
credit  and  renown,  who  brought  his  professional  language  of 
command  and  his  command  of  professional  language  also  to 
bear  with  great  effect  in  his  civil  administration  ;  and  of  whom 
many  anecdotes  might  be  related  which  would  be  quite  out  of 
place  in  this  sacred  edifice.     There  was  another  personage  at 
that  time  among  the  town  officials,  hardly  less  famous  and  awe- 
inspiring,  Jesse  Knevalsthe  constable,  of  rubicund  visage,  that 
terror  of  evil  doers,  before  whose  reputation  as  a  detective  and 
thief-taker  the  names  of  Vidocq  and  Jonathan  Wild,  at  least  in 
the  estimation  of  the  boys  of  that  period,  paled  into  obscurity. 
There  was  no  standing  city  police,  and  as  the  City  Court  had 
no  criminal  jurisdiction  the  administration  of  local  justice  was 
confined   to   the  grand   jurors   and  the  justices  of  the  peace. 
Thus  the  principal  functions  of  executive  and  judicial  power 
were  exercised  by  the  town  authorities.     But  as  the  basis  of 
both  town  and  city  systems,  the  power  behind  all  powers,  the 
final  embodiment  of  all  political  authority  in  legislation  was 
the   Sovereign   People  in   town  or  city   meeting  assembled. 
Far  different  were  those  town  meetings  from  the  degenerate 
conclaves  of  a  dozen  or  two  individuals  which  in  our  day  oc- 
casionally collect  in  a  hired  upper  room  in  a  quiet  street,  and 
pass  votes  which  require  judicial  decisions  to  interpret,  and 
additional  meetings  to  revise.     They  were  grand,  majestic  up- 
risings of  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  which  filled  the  town 
hall  to  overflowing,  and  shook  its  walls  with  eloquence;  and 
which  after  discussion  had  been  exhausted  and  the  question 
was  called  for,  poured  out  into  the  open  air,  and  formed  long 


lines  on  the  green  to  take  what  no  political  or  social  excite- 
ment has  ever  yet  denied  in  New  Haven,  a  free  vote,  and  a  fair 
count. 

A  review  of  the  recollections  of  that  period  when  New 
Haven  was  still  a  typical,  old  fashioned  New  England  town, 
and  when  its  social  features  were  still  moulded  in  ancestral 
forms,  would  be  incomplete  without  a  reference  to  some  other 
institutions  and  customs  characteristic  of  that  pre-transition 
era.  The  days  of  civic  festivity  were  not  numerous,  but  two  at 
least  in  every  year  were  observed  with  general  ardor.  The  first 
Monday  in  May  was  prescribed  by  law  for  an  annual  military 
muster,  a  relic  of  the  colonial  period,  and  under  the  title  of 
"  training  day,"  was  looked  forward  to  by  at  least  the  youthful 
part  of  the  population  with  joyous  anticipation.  On  that  day 
the  schools  were  dismissed,  the  workshops  were  deserted  and 
the  rural  population  took  possession  of  the  town.  Refresh- 
ment booths  lined  the  edges  of  the  green,  and  its  area  was 
thronged  throughout  the  day  by  a  miscellaneous  crowd  of  sight- 
seers, intermingled  with  penny-pitching  groups  and  itinerant 
vendors  of  home-made  molasses  candy.  At  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning  the  drums  were  sounded  on  the  green  and  from 
that  hour  until  late  in  the  afternoon  the  air  resounded  with 
martial  music  and  was  hazy  with  the  smoke  of  pistols  and  fire 
crackers,  and  the  streets  were  beaten  into  clouds  of  dust  by  the 
marching  hosts.  Every  able-bodied  citizen  not  specially  ex- 
empt was  enrolled  for  duty,  and  the  military  display  exhibited 
two  different  sides.  There  were  the  un-uniformed  companies, 
commonly  known  as  "  the  Milish,"  which  parading  only  under 
obligation  of  the  law,  and  accoutered  with  such  equipments  as 
each  man  considered  most  becoming  or  convenient,  turned  the 
whole  proceeding  into  a  farce  and  enlivened  it  with  every  gro- 
tesque embellishment  which  could  enter  the  brains  of  the 
lively  young  men  who  participated.  The  other  side  was  that 
of  the  uniformed  or  so-called  "independent  "  companies,  then 
3 


32 

consisting  of  the  Governor's  Guards,  horse  and  foot,  the  artil- 
lery (or  Blues)  and  the  Grays — small  but  spirited  organizations 
of  citizen  soldiery  whose  fine  appearance  on  those  training 
days  redeemed  them  from  discredit  and  kept  alive  a  military 
interest  in  this  community.  Much  does  New  Haven  owe  to 
those  "  independent  companies  "  on  whose  honorable  rolls  the 
names  of  so  many  of  our  leading  citizens  are  recorded  ;  and 
which,  preserved  from  disintegration  through  so  many  years 
by  their  patriotic  perseverance,  produced  such  rich  and  abun- 
dant fruit  in  the  time  of  the  Civil  War.  That  splendid  regi- 
ment which  has  paraded  as  escort  to-day  is  the  lineal  successor 
and  largely  the  outgrowth  of  the  two  little  companies,  hardly 
larger  than  battalions,  the  Artillery  and  the  Grays,  which  on 
the  last  centennial  anniversary  marched  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession under  the  commands  of  Captain  Morris  Tyler  and  Cap- 
tain Elijah  Thompson. 

The  other  civic  holiday,  the  fourth  of  July,  it  would  seem 
hardly  necessary  to  refer  to  as  an  ancient  institution  of  New 
Haven,  were  it  not  that  fifty  years  ago  it  was  observed  with  a 
general  patriotic  interest  which  seems  in  these  later  days  to  be 
passing  out  of  fashion.  The  sweet  note  of  the  fire  cracker,  it 
is  true,  still  attests  the  honorable  place  which  the  national 
birthday  holds  in  the  affections  of  Young  America  ;  but  the 
filial  pride,  the  reverent  enthusiasm  with  which  every  Ameri- 
can citizen  should  welcome  that  great  anniversary  and  transmit 
its  observance  as  a  conscientious  duty  to  posterity,  seems  in 
danger  of  waning  into  a  lazy  preference  for  peace  and  quiet. 
Never  until  1887,  since  the  declaration  of  independence  did  the 
public  authorities  of  New  Haven  refuse  to  provide  for  that  na- 
tional salute  of  bells  and  cannon  at  sunrise  and  sunset,  which 
our  forefathers  would  have  regarded  it  as  little  short  of  sacri- 
lege to  omit.  Never  until  1885,  since  we  became  a  nation,  was 
the  national  ensign  itself  banished  from  its  time  honored  place 
in  the  center  of  New  Haven  green.  For  that  one  year  the  sun 
in  his  daily  course  looked  for  the  historic  liberty  pole  in  vain  ; 


33 

but  happily  the  patriotic  conscience  of  our  citizens  revived  ;  the 
old  flag  staff  was  restored  to  its  accustomed  position  and  now 
the  glorious  banner  of  the  Union  floats  again  from  its  peak, 
never,  let  us  hope,  to  be  again  displaced.  Forever  float  that 
standard  sheet,  the  central  object  in  New  Haven's  sight,  the 
central  symbol  in  New  Haven's  patriotism  !  And  unless  we 
desire  that  our  children  shall  cease  to  remember  and  honor  the 
conflict  and  the  glory  amid  which  that  flag  was  born  and  has 
been  maintained,  let  its  rising  and  descending  be  greeted  on 
every  national  birthday  with  the  thunder  of  artillery  !  Doubt- 
less there  are  serious  objections  to  this  within  the  crowded 
limits  of  the  city  ;  but  what  spot  could  be  more  convenient  and 
appropriate  than  one  of  the  summits  of  East  Rock  Park,  where 
the  same  slant  beams  of  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun  will  kiss 
at  once  the  national  standard  and  the  monument  erected  to  its 
defenders  ? 

Of  the  social  characteristics  which  prevailed  in  our  com- 
munity fifty  years  ago,  a  few  words  may  be  said  to  illustrate 
the  changes  that  have  occurred  in  public  sentiment  on  some 
subjects  during  that  period.  Happily  there  still  obtains  in  New 
Haven  life  and  manners  much  of  their  former  simplicity,  mod- 
ified of  course  by  the  great  increase  of  population,  the  larger 
wealth  of  the  community  and  a  more  intimate  intercourse 
with  the  outside  world.  A  distinctively  religious  influence  on 
all  social  usages  was  then  a  marked  characteristic,  and  espe- 
cially on  all  matters  pertaining  to  public  or  private  amuse- 
ments. By  a  very  large  part  of  the  community  dancing  was 
strongly  disapproved  of,  and  the  playing  of  cards  by  a  still 
larger  proportion.  The  sale  of  playing  cards  was  prohibited 
by  law  until  1848.  In  1841  a  law  was  passed  suppressing  bowl- 
ing alleys  unless  specially  licensed  by  the  authorities.  In  1848 
it  was  made  unlawful  to  own  a  billiard  table  even  for  private 
use.  Exhibitions  of  mountebanks,  tumblers,  rope  dancers, 
puppet  shows,  and  feats  of  agility  and  dexterity  were  abso- 


34 

lutely  excluded  from  the  State  by  law  until  1862.  So  also  were 
circus  performances  of  horses  and  other  animals  under  penalty 
of  a  heavy  fine  and  the  forfeiture  of  the  animals.  Theaters  and 
theatrical  exhibitions  were  also  forbidden  until  1852,  when 
they  were  allowed  if  specially  approved  and  licensed.  Yet  the 
dramatic  taste  which  seems  implanted  in  every  human  mind 
was  not  entirely  smothered  by  these  rigid  proscriptions,  and  a 
quiet  theatrical  performance  if  called  by  an  unobjectionable 
name  would  occasionally  be  winked  at  by  the  authorities. 
There  was  one  annual  dramatic  entertainment  especially  which 
\vas  so  innocent  and  pleasing  in  its  character  that  it  met  with 
universal  approval  and  patronage.  This  was  the  yearly 
"School  Exhibition"  of  John  E.  Lovell,  whom  we  rejoice  to 
welcome  to-day  as  our  venerable  and  honored  guest.  Not  his 
old  pupils  only  but  our  whole  community  greets  him  with  re- 
spect and  gratitude  in  remembrance  of  his  faithful  and  useful 
services  in  former  generations  to  the  youth  of  New  Haven  and 
America. 

Among  the  changes  in  social  morals  and  usages  which  have 
occurred  during  the  last  half  century,  none  have  been  more 
marked  than  those  effected  by  the  temperance  reformation.  In 
1838  this  movement  was  just  acquiring  headway.  It  was  then 
displayed  largely  in  processions  and  lectures  and  other  forms 
of  moral  suasion,  though  the  effort  to  repress  intemperance  by 
law  was  commencing  and  for  many  years  thereafter  created 
agitation  and  division  in  the  politics  of  the  State.  A  crisis  was 
reached  in  1854  when  the  Maine  law,  so-called,  was  enacted,  for- 
bidding liquors  to  be  sold  except  at  public  agencies  to  be  estab- 
lished by  the  towns  and  then  only  for  sacramental,  medical  and 
mechanical  purposes.  The  agency  was  required  to  keep  a  pub- 
lic registry  of  each  sale,  showing  the  name  of  the  buyer,  the 
quantity  bought  and  the  object  of  the  purchase.  As  the  day  ap- 
proached, our  streets  were  alive  with  a  general  hegira  of  every 
species  of  stimulating  fluid  to  the  cellars  of  prudent  house- 


35 

holders  in  preparation  for  a  long  and  thirsty  siege.  Nor  was 
the  panic  wholly  without  foundation.  At  the  first  town  meet- 
ing to  establish  an  agency  under  the  law  the  sum  of  six  and  a 
quarter  cents  was  appropriated  for  the  purchase  of  the  town 
supply  of  liquors,  with  a  proviso,  however,  that  the  money 
should  not  be  drawn  from  the  treasury  for  six  years  from  the 
date  of  the  vote.  But  at  a  later  meeting  the  town,  appalled  at 
the  probable  consequences  of  so  meager  a  provision,  rescinded 
its  action  and  furnished  the  agency  with  a  larger  and  more 
available  capital.  The  agency  continued  in  operation  until 
l&57>  by  which  time  the  medical  column  of  the  register  dis- 
closed a  very  discouraging  state  of  the  public  health.  In  that 
year,  however,  the  law  was  repealed,  and  the  medical  statistics 
were  suspended  with  it,  so  that  the  general  sanitary  restoration, 
if  any  ensued,  can  only  be  inferred  ;  it  cannot,  like  the  previ- 
ous decadence,  be  established  by  record  evidence  of  unimpeach- 
able authority. 

I  have  sketched  thus  imperfectly  the  appearance  and 
some  of  the  municipal  and  social  features  of  New  Haven  in 
1838  because  that  year  stands  at  the  threshold  of  a  new  era  in 
the  methods  of  its  civil  and  material  progress.  Up  to  that  time 
its  development  had  been  along  the  same  lines  of  growth 
that  were  established  by  its  founders.  Of  course  there  had 
been  in  two  centuries  an  increase  of  population,  of  wealth,  and 
of  culture,  and  a  widening  of  the  field  of  its  activities.  We 
may  well  admit  also  that  ideas  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
had  advanced  since  the  days  of  Eaton  and  Davenport.  It  was 
the  lasting  honor  of  the  Puritans  that  they  embodied  in  their 
civil  and  social  polity  principles  which  are  by  their  nature  pro- 
gressive. They  builded  better  than  they  knew,  and  if  many  of 
their  inherited  views  were  narrow  or  erroneous,  they  at  least 
never  feared  or  failed  to  follow  in  whatever  direction  freedom 
and  truth  might  take,  and  they  never  turned  backwards  in  that 
path.  Cautious  and  conservative  they  undoubtedly  were  ;  yet 


36 

the  passage  from  a  theocracy  to  the  complete  separation  of 
Church  and  State  had  been  by  a  process  of  natural  though  slow 
development ;  and  the  final  change  when  it  came  in  the  State 
Constitution  of  1818  effected  a  nominal  rather  than  an  actual 
revolution  in  religious  tolerance.  In  the  same  conservative 
way  though  the  city  organization  had  been  in  force  for  over 
fifty  years,  the  town  idea  and  administration  still  maintained 
their  original  supremacy.  The  severe  and  simple  morals  and 
manners  of  the  earlier  settlers  still  prevailed  in  social  life,  and 
native  inhabitants  still  formed  the  body  of  the  population. 
Even  the  external  appearance  of  the  town,  except  that  it  had 
become  enlarged  and  beautified,  had  not  changed  materially 
from  that  of  the  rural  village  of  the  previous  century.  Com- 
merce, manufactures  and  transportation  as  we  have  seen,  were 
still  dependent,  as  they  had  been  two  hundred  years  before,  on 
the  simple  agencies  of  winds  and  horses  and  water  power  and 
hand  labor.  Hence  the  orator  at  the  last  centennial  celebration 
could  look  backwards  to  no  decisive  turning  point  which 
marked  a  new  era  in  the  prosperity  of  the  town,  or  a  new  depar- 
ture in  its  methods  of  social  or  political  life.  And  when  he 
inquired  with  respect  to  the  future,  <4  Who  can  descry  with 
distinctness  the  condition  of  even  the  next  generation  ?"  far 
indeed  was  he  from  forecasting  the  amazing  changes  which  that 
generation  was  to  behold  and  which  even  then  were  about  to 
open. 

For  the  time  had  come  when  the  age  of  hand-labor  and  of  in- 
dividual effort  and  enterprise  as  the  leading  agencies  in  civili- 
zation was  to  pass  away,  and  the  age  of  organized  power,  the 
age  of  machinery,  of  combined  or  associated  action,  was  to  take 
control  of  all  physical  and  moral  forces,  and  by  wielding  them 
on  the  widest  scale  was  to  effect  transformations  foreshadowed 
by  no  previous  experience.  The  causes  of  this  change  were 
numerous  and  affected  not  New  Haven  only  but  our  whole 
country  and  the  civilized  world.  They  were  those  new  con- 


37 

ditions  which,  springing  into  existence  almost  together,  threw 
upon  society  many  and  enormous  additions  to  its  means  of  in- 
tercourse, traffic  and  production.  Of  these  new  conditions  the 
most  important  grew  out  of  the  application  of  steam  to  rail- 
ways, the  great  and  rapid  growth  of  foreign  immigration,  the 
sudden  increase  in  the  volume  of  the  precious  metals,  the  in- 
troduction of  electricity  in  the  transmission  of  intelligence,  and 
an  abundant  and  cheap  supply  of  coal  and  its  products  for  fuel 
and  improved  illumination.*  To  wield  these  various  agencies 
for  the  progress  of  civilization,  new  instrumentalities  were 
called  for  and  speedily  developed  in  the  nature  of  organized 
machinery,  such  as  combinations  of  individuals,  combinations 
of  capital,  combinations  of  matter  ;  and  thus  arose  that  new 
age  in  the  history  of  mankind  which  we  designate  the  age  of 
machinery ;  an  age  marked  by  the  use  of  machinery  and 
machine-like  methods  in  all  the  affairs  of  life,  in  manufactures, 
in  trade,  in  public  business,  in  domestic  living,  in  politics,  in 
the  regulation  of  labor,  and  alas  !  in  religion  itself. 


To  review  in  detail  the  successive  steps  by  which  the  quiet 
old  fashioned  town  of  1838  was  taken  possession  of  by  the 
spirit  of  machinery  and  transformed  into  the  bustling  city  of 
to-day  would  transcend  my  limits  and  I  shall  simply  mention 

*  It  is  a  fact  of  sufficient  historical  importance  to  deserve  recording  in 
this  place,  that  the  first  known  petroleum  well  was  bored  in  1859  at  Titus- 
ville,  Penn,  as  an  experiment,  by  direction  of  the  "  Seneca  Oil  Company  " 
of  New  Haven,  of  which  Hon.  James  M.  Townsend  was  President.  Pre- 
vious to  that  time,  the  oil  which  had  a  very  limited  use  in  its  crude  state  for 
medical  and  chemical  purposes,  was  collected  from  the  surface  of  water  in 
shallow  trenches  and  pits.  The  boring  proved  successful,  producing  a  sup- 
ply of  several  hundred  gallons  per  day,  and  the  discovery  thus  made  of  the 
unlimited  quantities  of  oil  obtainable  led  to  subsequent  processes  of  refin- 
ing for  illuminating  purposes,  and  to  the  invention  of  suitable  lamps  and 
burning  devices  whereby  the  various  forms  of  industry  and  commerce  con- 
nected with  petroleum  have  been  developed  throughout  the  world.  In  rec- 
ognition of  this  great  service  to  Pennsylvania  the  legislature  of  that  state 
afterwards  granted  a  pension  to  the  agent  of  the  company,  E.  L.  Drake, 
who  went  from  New  Haven  and  superintended  the  boring. 


38 

a  few  of  them.  In  1839  came  railroad  connection  with  Hart- 
ford. The  old  canal  was  soon  abandoned  and  was  opened  as  a 
railroad  to  Plainville  in  1848.  The  railroad  to  New  York  was 
completed  in  the  same  year.  Gas  was  introduced  in  1848.  The 
telegraph  came  in  1849.  In  1850  commenced  the  movement 
for  the  water  works,  although  water  was  not  actually  introduced 
till  1862.  For  this  great  boon,  acquired  for  this  community 
only  through  a  long  and  arduous  controversy,  New  Haven  is 
glad  to  acknowledge  a  new  obligation  to  the  honored  name  of 
Eli  Whitney.  The  construction  of  sewers  followed  necessarily 
on  the  water  works.  The  George  street  sewer  had  been  in  fact 
completed  before  the  water  began  to  flow.  The  present  system 
of  sewers  with  all  its  associated  financial,  administrative  and 
engineering  arrangements  was  the  growth  of  many  years  ;  and 
it  will  ever  remain  a  monument  to  the  forethought,  the  energy, 
the  good  judgment  and  the  untiring  perseverance  of  Hon. 
Henry  G.  Lewis,  Mayor  of  the  city  from  1870  to  1877.  The 
march  of  improvement  had  meanwhile  been  going  on  apace. 
Under  the  joint  stock  corporation  act  which  was  passed  in  1837 
and  which  was  itself  a  remarkable  landmark  in  our  industrial 
jurisprudence,  great  numbers  of  manufacturing  and  other  enter- 
prises had  sprung  into  existence  ;  new  buildings,  public  and 
private,  factories  and  warehouses  were  filling  up  the  vacant 
spaces.  Sidewalks  and  gutters  had  become  nearly  universal. 
Street  paving  which  had  commenced  in  1852  by  macadamizing 
Whalley  avenue  with  hand  broken  stone,  proceeded  about  1857 
with  Belgian  blocks  in  Chapel,  State  and  Grand  streets,  but 
halted  there  until  machine-broken  stone  made  a  general  Telford 
system  possible  some  ten  years  later.  Horse  railroads  began 
to  appear  in  1860.  The  "  Little  Derby  "  railroad  with  which  as 
a  city  investment  we  have  lately  so  cheerfully  parted,  re-annexed 
the  Naugatuck  Valley  to  New  Haven  in  1871.  The  Western 
Union  telegraph  poles  and  wires  were  already  crowding  our 
streets  when  the  fire  alarm  system  and  the  public  school  sys- 
tem, and  the  police  system,  and  finally  the  telephone  and  elec- 


39 

trie  light  systems,  all  successively  added  their  contributions  to 
that  "  harp  of  a  thousand  strings  "  by  which  "  the  spirits  of  just 
men  are  ' not'  made  perfect." 

Thus  by  one  change  after  another  the  quiet  and  antiquated 
town  has  seen  itself  since  1838,  linked  to  its  neighbors  by  strips 
of  steel,  strapped  across  with  iron  bands,  planed  down  and 
built  up  to  uniform  grades,  plated  and  trimmed  and  grooved 
with  layers  of  brick  and  stone,  perforated  with  a  labyrinth  of 
tubes,  and  enveloped  with  a  net  work  of  wires.  In  short  it  has 
seen  itself  transformed  into  a  great  public  machine  ;  a  machine 
to  be  operated  in  the  water  business,  in  the  gas  business,  in  the 
drainage  business,  in  the  transportation  and  traveling  busi- 
ness, and  in  all  the  departments  of  electric  business  ;  vocations 
all,  which  the  old  town  was  too  old  fashioned  to  learn  but 
which  the  brisk  young  city  was  quite  willing  to  undertake. 
And  so  it  has  come  about  that  divesting  herself  of  all  respon- 
sibility and  worry  connected  with  the  active  management  of 
these  and  co-ordinate  matters  the  ancient  commonwealth  has 
turned  over  the  charge  of  its  business  affairs  to  its  municipal 
daughter,  and  settled  herself  down  in  a  dignified  repose.  By 
successive  amendments  to  the  City  Charter  commencing  in 
1842  and  ending  with  1880  both  the  powers  and  the  limits  of 
the  city  have  been  so  extended  that  the  administrative  functions 
of  the  town  within  that  part  of  its  territory  have  been  substan- 
tially superseded.  Two  smaller  children,  however,  yet  remain 
under  the  maternal  jurisdiction  ;  the  ever  faithful  Westville 
and  that  once  errant  daughter,  the  East  Haven  Annex,  long 
separated  from  her  care,  but  lately  returned  to  the  family 
hearth.  These  the  venerable  town  still  hugs  to  her  bosom  ; 
they  also,  with  equal  fondness  cling  tightly  to  her  skirts,  and 
have  thus  far  successfully  resisted  every  effort  of  their  big 
and  jealous  sister  to  entice  or  drag  them  from  that  motherly 
shelter. 

But  while  the  town  has  so  largely  withdrawn  from  the  mere 
business  affairs  of  local  government,  it  has  not  abdicated  those 


40 
higher  functions  which  concern  the  relations  of  the  citizen  to 

o 

the  State  ;  such  as  the  conferment  of  electoral  rights,  the  mili- 
tary defence  of  the  country,  and  the  dispensation  of  public 
charity.  Upon  its  exercise  of  all  these  duties  during  the  last 
fifty  years  I  have  no  time  to  dwell.  I  can  only  advert  to  so 
much  of  the  second  as  respects  the  services  of  New  Haven  in 
the  War  for  the  Union  and  even  upon  this  in  no  proportion  to 
its  historic  grandeur  and  importance.  It  would  indeed  be  im- 
possible to  worthily  recite  that  story  of  effort  and  achievement, 
in  which  both  town  and  city  are  indistinguishably  blended. 
Nor  is  it  necessary.  The  record  of  those  years  is  burnt  into 
the  hearts  and  memories  of  their  survivors.  It  is  read  and  re- 
read with  patriotic  pride  by  their  children,  and  will  be  by 
future  generations  till  time  shall  be  no  more.  To  that  honored 
band  of  veterans,  whose  diminishing  ranks  still  furnish  the 
noblest  feature  of  this  and  every  other  public  occasion,  what 
language  is  needed  to  recall  the  fatigues  of  the  march,  the  pri- 
vations of  the  camp,  the  shock  and  thunder  of  battle,  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  hospital  and  the  hell  of  the  rebel  prison  ?  And 
even  to  those  who  in  the  security  of  home  experienced  none  of 
these,  what  words  can  adequately  revive  those  days  of  excite- 
ment and  nights  of  wakefulness  ;  when  our  green  and  suburban 
fields  were  trodden  bare  by  the  tramp  of  drilling  battalions 
and  marching  regiments  ;  when  the  flag  was  flying  continu- 
ously from  every  steeple  and  roof  and  doorway  ;  when  the 
cannon  would  arouse  us  from  sleep  by  the  announcement  of 
victory,  or  the  dread  tidings  of  disaster  would  fall  like  lead 
upon  our  hearts  ;  when  the  papers  were  hurriedly  scanned 
after  every  battle  for  the  lists  of  the  killed  and  the  wounded  ; 
and  the  garbs  of  mourning  and  the  sad  faces  of  bereavement 
filled  our  streets,  and  darkened  every  public  assembly  ? 
Thanks  be  to  God  !  those  harrowing  days  are  past  long  since 
and  were  not  in  vain  !  I  shall  not  enlarge  upon  their  history, 
but  on  this  day  of  historic  reminiscence  I  should  not  be  par- 
doned if  I  neglected  to  give  a  prominent  place  to  the  part  which 


41 

New  Haven  bore  in  that  great  conflict,  the  most  momentous 
of  modern  times.  Let  me  therefore  by  way  of  illustration,  re- 
call three  conspicuous  episodes  in  the  story  of  the  war  familiar 
to  you  all,  in  which  citizens  of  New  Haven  rendered  services  to 
their  country  of  the  highest  consequence. 

It  was  in  January,  1862,  and  the  war  was  still  languishing. 
The  splendid  armies  which  had  gathered  about  Washington 
the  summer  previous  to  retrieve  the  disaster  and  disgrace  of 
Bull  Run  were  still  retained  in  their  camps,  and  the  same 
monotonous  report  came  month  after  month — "  All  quiet  on 
the  Potomac."  Meanwhile  the  Rebel  Confederacy  was  profit- 
ing by  every  day's  delay  to  consolidate  its  political  and  mili- 
tary strength,  and  to  concentrate  the  means  of  resistance  at 
every  assailable  point.  Troops  were  pouring  from  all  quarters 
into  Richmond.  The  Mississippi  was  being  fortified  at  every 
strategic  position,  and  a  strong  line  of  rebel  posts  was  already 
stretched  across  Tennessee  and  Southern  Kentucky.  Foreign 
powers,  openly  sympathizing  with  the  Confederacy,  were  on  the 
point  of  recognizing  its  independence  as  an  accomplished  fact. 
The  people  of  the  North  had  for  months  been  chafing  with 
impatience  at  the  delay  and  its  consequences,  and  now  indig- 
nation had  begun  to  give  place  to  discouragement  and  distrust. 
Rumors  of  intended  compromise  were  in  the  air ;  charges  of 
treachery  against  both  military  and  civil  authorities  were  rife, 
and  a  despairing  cry  was  going  up  for  a  man  who  was  in  earn- 
est and  who  would  strike  one  vigorous  blow  at  the  rebellion. 
At  length  the  endurance  of  even  the  long  suffering  Lincoln 
was  exhausted,  and  he  issued  his  famous  order  requiring  all 
commanding  generals  to  be  in  readiness  for  a  movement  on 
February  22d.  This  order  superseding  all  previous  general 
orders,  left  commanders  of  Departments  free  to  act.  It  was 
dated  January  27th,  and  scarcely  had  it  been  given  when  out 
from  the  murky  sky  of  the  West  the  lightning  flashed — and 
struck  !  It  struck  the  center  of  the  rebel  line  from  the  Missis- 


42 

sippi  to  the  mountains,  and  it  broke  it  to  pieces.  On  the  5th 
of  February  Fort  Henry  surrendered.  On  the  i6th  Fort  Don- 
elson  surrendered.  On  the  23d  Nashville  was  abandoned. 
On  the  2d  of  March  Columbus,  the  gate  of  the  river,  and 
proudly  entitled  "The  Gibraltar  of  the  Confederacy,"  was 
evacuated.  Thus  before  the  day  named  by  the  President  for  ac- 
tion had  arrived,  the  way  had  been  broken  open,  never  again 
to  be  closed,  through  which  the  Union  armies  were  afterward  to 
penetrate  the  heart  and  bowels  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
And  in  that  day  of  joy  and  triumph  there  rang  with  acclama- 
tions throughout  the  loyal  North  and  were  pondered  by  cau- 
tious cabinets  across  the  seas,  two  immortal  names  then  first 
linked  in  historic  conjunction,  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  Andrew 
Hull  Foote,  a  citizen  of  New  Haven. 

But  to  Foote's  untiring  zeal  this  was  only  a  beginning. 
The  Confederate  forces  driven  from  Columbus,  had  fallen 
down  the  river  to  Island  No.  10,  a  stronger  natural  position 
and  which  they  had  fortified  till  they  deemed  it  impregnable. 
Wounded  and  almost  disabled  as  he  was,  Foote  by  the  i5th  of 
March  had  refitted  his  shattered  fleet  and  was  confronting  the 
massive  walls  and  ponderous  guns  of  the  rebel  stronghold  with 
his  tin-clad  cockle-shells.  The  brilliant  operations  of  the  land 
and  naval  forces  in  that  investment  and  siege  I  need  not  de- 
scribe. The  struggle  was  arduous  but  successful,  and  on  the 
8th  of  April  the  impregnable  fortress  with  all  its  garrison,  guns 
and  supplies  surrendered  to  the  indomitable  New  Havener. 

It  was  a  splendid  triumph,  but  it  was  his  last.  Recalled  to 
the  East  that  he  might  enter  on  the  duties  of  a  higher  rank  and 
a  wider  command,  he  brought  back  a  frame  shattered  by  his 
wound,  and  a  heart  lacerated  by  domestic  affliction.  For  a  few 
days  we  saw  him  here  and  heard  his  cheering  and  inspiring 
voice,  and  then  he  left  us  to  return  no  more  till  he  came  home 
wrapped  in  his  country's  flag.  Slowly  and  sadly  we  laid  him 
down,  and  left  him  alone  with  his  glory.  New  Haven  has  re- 
corded in  her  annals  many  great  and  venerable  names  ;  but 


43 

among  them  all  there  is  not  one  which  she  should  cherish  with 
higher  honor  than  that  which  stands  for  all  that  is  pure  and 
gentle  in  Christian  character,  broad  and  unselfish  in  patriot- 
ism, and  brilliant  in  heroic  achievement,  Andrew  Hull  Foote. 

While  these  great  events  were  occurring  in  the  West  there 
were  ominous  rumors  in  circulation  that  some  mysterious  and 
terrible  blow  was  being  prepared  for  our  navy  on  the  Atlantic 
Coast  and  especially  for  that  part  of  it  near  Richmond.     Night 
and  day,  it  was  said,  the  mechanics  of  the  rebel  capital  had 
been  building  and  equipping  an  invulnerable  floating  monster, 
which  was  to  bear  havoc  and  destruction  to  Union  ships,  forts, 
and  towns,   in  an  unimpeded  course  ;  but  of  the  particular 
shape,  size  or  construction  of  this  grim   and  terrible  engine 
nothing  was  known  or  could  be  learned.     To  meet  it  the  Union 
authorities  had  made  and  were  making  no  adequate  prepara- 
tion ;  but  there  was  one  man  with  forethought,  energy  and  en- 
terprise adapted  to  the  emergency.     He  had  received  from  a 
distinguished  inventor  and  naval  engineer  the  model  of  a  ves- 
sel of  bold  and  original  design,  without  precedent  in  marine 
construction,  but  which  seemed  to  him  full  of  value  as  a  means 
of  encountering  the  expected  and  dreaded  destroyer.     He  ap- 
pealed to  the  government  for  authority  and  meajis  to  construct 
this  untried  vessel  but  was  repelled  by  the  incredulity  and  the 
adverse   influence  of  naval  officials.     Like  Columbus  at  the 
Court  of  Spain  he  was  offering  to  his  country  an  undiscovered 
empire  of  power  and  victory,  and  like  Columbus  he  clung  to 
his  purpose  through  every  discouragement.     At  length  he  re- 
ceived a  grudging  permission  to  build  the  vessel  but  only  at 
the  risk  of  himself  and  his  associates.     When  completed  she 
was  to  go  into  action,  and  if  by  the  fortune  of  war  she  should 
be  sunk  or  captured  or  fail  to  defeat  her  antagonist,  the  builders 
should  refund  to  the  government  the  cost  of  her  construction. 
These  hard  terms  he  promptly  accepted — and  you  know  the  re- 
sult !     The  world  knows  it  by  heart.     It  reads  more  like  a  ro- 


44 

mantic  tale  of  the  Orient  than  the  sober  narrative  of  history. 
With  that  first  memorable  conflict  of  heavy  armored  ships  be- 
gan a  new  era  in  naval  architecture.  The  shots  they  fired  were 
indeed  heard  around  the  world.  They  rang  with  the  voice  of  a 
Monitor  in  the  ears  of  foreign  powers  warning  them  to  keep 
out  of  the  American  quarrel  since  all  their  navies  had  turned  in 
a  night  into  pasteboard.  Nor  was  this  all.  From  that  conflict 
sprang  speedily  into  existence  the  armored  and  turreted  fleets 
which  later  in  the  war  destroyed  every  vestige  of  naval  power 
on  the  part  of  the  Confederacy. 

Whose  were  the  sagacious  judgment,  the  wise  forethought, 
the  persistent  purpose,  and  the  patriotic  courage  which  by 
timely  action  secured  these  benefits  to  his  country?  Your 
thoughts  have  already  uttered  his  name.  It  was  Cornelius 
Scranton  Bushnell,  a  citizen  of  New  Haven. 

The  third  event  to  which  I  shall  allude  occurred  near  the 
close  of  the  war.  Richmond  was  beleaguered.  The  Southern 
States  had  been  generally  subdued,  and  their  ports  mostly  oc- 
cupied by  Union  forces.  Further  contest  was  hopeless,  but  the 
rebel  leaders  with  reckless  desperation  were  resolved  to  sacri- 
fice every  man  and  every  dollar  in  the  last  ditch  of  secession 
and  slavery,  and  still  fought  on.  But  to  keep  up  their  strug- 
gle continual  military  supplies  were  necessary,  and  these  could 
only  be  obtained  from  foreign  sources.  To  these  sources  one 
gate  still  remained  open.  The  port  of  Wilmington  was  directly 
connected  with  Richmond  by  rail  and  the  Union  armies  had 
not  yet  been  able  to  break  that  communication.  Into  that  port 
poured  blockade  runners  with  their  cargoes  of  arms,  ammuni- 
tion and  supplies  of  every  kind,  the  aggregate  value  of  which 
in  1863  alone  was  computed  at  66,000,000  of  dollars.  The  port 
was  so  situated  that  it  could  not  be  blockaded  effectually,  and 
fully  alive  to  its  importance  the  Confederates  had  fortified  it 
with  enormous  works  on  which  they  had  lavished  every  re- 
source of  engineering  and  military  science,  until  in  the  judg- 


45 

ment  of  competent  critics  they  were  stronger  than  the  famous 
Malakoff  which  so  long  defied  the  combined  armies  of  Great 
Britain  and  France.  The  work  of  their  reduction  or  capture 
had  hitherto  seemed  to  the  Union  commanders  too  serious  to 
undertake,  but  the  time  had  now  come  when  it  was  necessary 
as  one  of  the  final  blows  at  the  rebellion.  A  great  naval  and 
military  armament  was  despatched  against  them,  but  after  an 
ineffectual  bombardment  the  commanding  general  of  the  expe- 
dition had  returned  with  the  report  that  their  capture  except 
by  regular  siege  was  impossible.  Evidently  here  was  a  critical 
emergency.  To  abandon  the  attempt  would  be  to  strengthen 
the  rebel  courage  and  resources,  to  discredit  the  Union  power, 
to  dissatisfy  the  Northern  people,  and  to  postpone  the  end  of 
the  war.  At  all  hazards  those  forts  must  be  taken  ;  but  to  do  it 
a  leader  was  required  second  in  courage  and  capacity  to  no 
other  in  the  army.  The  great  captain  did  not  hesitate  for  a  mo- 
ment. From  amid  the  brilliant  array  of  tried  and  trusted  gen- 
erals at  his  command — from  among  the  scores  of  gallant  lead- 
ers who  had  been  educated  at  famous  military  schools  and 
were  renowned  for  their  long  and  faithful  services,  their  signal 
ability  and  splendid  achievements,  his  unerring  judgment  se- 
lected and  sent  to  the  task  a  citizen  of  New  Haven  ;  one  whose 
early  military  training  had  been  in  the  New  Haven  Grays  and 
the  Second  Regiment ;  one  who  by  his  high  character,  his  tried 
experience,  his  modesty,  his  ability  and  his  earnest  and  steady 
purpose  had  long  been  conspicuous  among  his  peers  as  the 
beau  ideal  of  a  soldier  and  a  gentleman.  He  sent  Alfred  Howe 
Terry  ;  and  the  impossible  was  accomplished. 

You  have  reason  my  fellow  citizens  to  be  proud  of  that  name. 
Sprung  from  New  Haven  stock,  and  identified  with  New 
Haven  as  the  home  of  his  youth  and  maturer  years,  we  who 
knew  him  well  in  the  earlier  relations  of  domestic,  social,  and 
civil  life  can  best  appreciate  how  much  our  community  in  part- 
ing with  him  gave  up  to  the  higher  claims  of  our  country. 
And  now,  when  after  so  long  an  absence  his  distinguished  pub- 


46 

lie  career  has  ended,  his  heart  turns  back  to  his  boyhood's 
home  with  as  warm  an  affection  as  when,  a  slim  and  blue-eyed 
youth,  he  recorded  deeds  in  the  Town  Clerk's  office  or  marched 
with  shouldered  musket  in  the  ranks  of  the  New  Haven  Grays. 
Warmly  we  greet  his  return  to  the  shadows  of  the  old 
familiar  elms  and  pray  that  his  declining  years  may  be  as  tran- 
quil and  happy  as  his  active  life  has  been  useful  and  glorious. 

* 

I  have  made  special  reference  to  these  events  in  the  war  his- 
tory of  our  town  because  they  were  occurrences  peculiarly 
striking  in  their  character  and  of  great  and  general  importance 
in  their  consequences.  To  select  even  these  seems  almost  in- 
vidious, for  the  annals  of  New  Haven  shine  on  every  page  with 
deeds  of  others  of  her  sons,  living  and  dead,  well  worthy  of 
conspicuous  mention.  She  proudly  remembers  them  all.  All 
honor  to  the  surviving  actors  in  that  great  struggle  !  May 
they  long  remain  among  us  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  valor 
and  the  gratitude  of  their  fellow  citizens,  and  far  distant  be  the 
day  when  our  children's  children  shall  cease  to  say  "  There 
goes  a  Union  veteran  !" 

And  for  the  unreturning  brave  !  For  those  who  went  out 
from  us  with  a  sacred  devotion  and  yielded  up  their  lives  not 
knowing  whether  or  not  they  died  in  vain  !  Oh  that  their 
eyes  might  look  for  an  hour  on  what  we  behold  this  day  !  On 
a  restored  Union  !  a  slave-emancipated  Republic  !  and  a  re- 
united people  growing  daily,  let  us  hope,  in  a  strengthening 
bond  of  brotherhood  !  But  useless  is  the  aspiration  !  No  call 
but  that  of  the  resurrection  morning  will  reach  them  where  in 
unknown  graves  or  beneath  time  worn  tablets  they  sleep,  our 
heroes  sleep, — sleep  !  But  not  forgotten  !  That  granite  shaft 
which  we  have  so  lately  consecrated  to  the  fame  of  the  living 
and  dead,  and  which  from  far  away  over  land  and  sea  is  the 
first  object  that  greets  the  eye  to  mark  the  position  of  New 
Haven  bears  witness  to  the  world  that  she  dwells  near  to  the 
thought  of  her  heroes,  and  for  her  chosen  landmark  erects 


47 

their  monument.  On  a  lofty  and  eternal  pedestal  upheaved 
by  nature  in  one  of  its  mightiest  convulsions,  it  appropriately 
stands :  apart,  like  a  holy  thought,  from  the  bustle  of  the 
market  place,  yet  full  in  view  from  every  quarter  of  the  busy 
city,  outlined  against  the  clear  sky  of  Heaven,  forever  pointing 
upward  to  the  empyrean.  In  our  hours  of  business  it  catches 
our  casual  glance  ;  and  when  in  the  enjoyment  of  leisure  and 
recreation  we  stand  at  its  base  and  look  abroad  on  the  abound- 
ing beauty  of  the  prospect  that  lies  spread  before  us,  its  near 
presence  dominates  the  scene  and  hallows  it  with  its  noble 
lesson.  As  the  cross  reminds  us  at  once  of  a  mighty  sacrifice, 
and  of  the  priceless  blessings  that  it  purchased,  so  that  granite 
shaft  will  express  to  the  remotest  posterity  both  the  cost  and 
the  value  of  constitutional  freedom.  Never  until  that  lovely 
landscape  shall  fade  into  everlasting  night,  and  those  solid 
rocks  sink  back  into  the  abyss  from  which  they  rose,  may  that 
lesson  be  lost  on  the  sons  of  New  Haven,  or  their  gratitude 
fail  TO  THE  DEFENDERS  OF  "  LIBERTY  AND  UNION,  NOW  AND 

FOREVER,  ONE  AND  INSEPARABLE." 

A  review,  however,  hasty,  of  the  last  half  century's  changes  in 
New  Haven  would  be  incomplete  without  a  reference  to  her 
dethronement  as  a  co-capital  of  the  State  after  holding  that 
dignified  position  for  a  hundred  and  seventy-four  years.  It 
was  the  culminating  triumph  of  our  eager  and  aspiring  little 
sister  on  the  shad-producing  river  in  a  long  series  of  family 
differences.  From  the  time  when  in  1663  the  New  Haven 
Colony  suddenly  found  herself  already  annexed  to  the  juris- 
diction of  her  wide  awake  rival,  an  unremitting  vigilance  was 
always  necessary'  on  her  part,  though  not  always  exercised 
and  not  often  successful,  to  secure  the  few  crumbs  of  privilege 
and  opportunity  which  fell  on  our  side  of  the  family  table. 
There  were  early  contests  about  the  half  capital  question,  and 
on  the  removal  of  the  college,  and  later  ones  about  canal  ex- 
tensions and  railroad  extensions  and  Connecticut  river  bridges 
4 


48 

and  others  too  numerous  to  mention.  But  these  had  all  gone 
by  and  there  remained  on  the  placid  surface  of  New  Haven 
equanimity  not  a  ripple  from  the  last  family  breeze.  In  1869 
appeared  the  first  symptoms  of  approaching  trouble.  The 
Legislature  of  the  State  became  discontented  with  its  accom- 
modations both  at  New  Haven  and  Hartford  and  uttered  the 
indiscriminate  malediction  "  a  plague  on  both  your  houses." 
Here  was  our  ambitious  little  sister's  opportunity  and  she  was 
as  usual,  equal  to  the  occasion.  As  the  daughter  of  Herodias 
danced  before  Herod  and  was  told  to  name  her  reward  even  to 
the  half  of  the  kingdom,  so  our  active  little  sister  danced 
wisely  and  well  before  the  Sovereign  People  of  the  State  and 
obtained  in  the  end  her  rival's  head  in  a  charger.  But  the  fond 
old  State  was  not  allowed  to  stop  with  this  gift  alone.  Instead 
of  the  half  a  million  of  dollars  which  it  had  originally  con- 
templated as  its  expenditure  for  the  new  capitol  nearly  two 
and  a  quarter  millions  were  finally  cajoled  from  its  treasury 
and  applied  in  building  and  grounds  for  the  adornment  of 
Hartford.  But  let  justice  be  done.  Let  not  the  impartiality  of 
the  State  be  impeached.  If  Hartford  was  noticed  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  favors,  New  Haven  was  not  forgotten.  As  our 
good  old  mother  State  removed  the  scepter  of  dignity  from  our 
hands  she  made  over  to  us  with  thoughtful  liberality  her  inter- 
est in  a  certain  sacred  white  elephant,  to  remind  us  of  the 
stat-us  quo  ante. 

But  who  would  be  so  ill-natured  as  to  begrudge  to  our 
bright  little  sister  (no  longer,  we  trust,  a  rival)  the  advantages 
she  secured  by  her  smartness  and  enterprise.  We  congratulate 
her  on  her  beautiful  park,  and  especially  on  her  showy  and 
brass  mounted  capitol  building.  Happy  and  proud  may  she 
well  be  to  survey  it ;  and  greatly  to  be  admired  is  that  spirited 
figure  perched  on  its  pinnacle,  a  brazen  daughter  of  Herodias 
idealized  as  the  genius  of  Hartford,  gracefully  poised  on  agile 
foot,  bearing  in  one  hand  her  own  wreath  of  sovereignty  and 
triumphantly  waving  in  the  other  the  crown  or  scalp  that  has 


49 

just  been  plucked  from  her  decapitated  rival.  It  is  an  apt  and 
happy  conception  ;  and  while  we  all  good  humoredly  enjoy  it 
together,  let  the  two  sister  cities  embrace  each  other  with  that 
ancient  and  genuine  affection  which  no  rivalries  can  ever  dis- 
turb and  mutually  breathe  the  benediction,  "  Let  us  have 
Peace." 

As  we  approach  the  close  of  this  retrospect  there  float  before 
our  mental  vision  the  images  of  those  who  in  1838  or  later 
were  prominent  in  our  community  and  who  are  with  us  no 
more.  The  proprieties  of  the  occasion,  no  less  than  the 
prompting  of  our  hearts  require  that  we  should  pay  them  the 
passing  tribute  of  our  remembrance.  Yet  as  the  long  cata- 
logue of  notable  names,  death's  garnerings  for  fifty  years, 
passes  through  our  minds  we  find  it  impossible  to  refer  to  all, 
and  impossible  also  to  make  a  satisfactory  discrimination.  In 
the  limited  time  therefore  that  remains  I  must  confine  my  allu- 
sions to  a  few  of  those  who  filled  distinguished  places  in  our 
local  world  of  religion,  letters,  politics  or  science,  or  who  by 
reason  of  special  benefits  conferred  on  our  community  have  a 
particular  claim  to  commemoration. 

And  first  of  all,  standing  on  this  consecrated  spot,  I  should 
be  false  to  my  own  sentiments  and  to  yours  if  there  fell  from 
my  lips  any  other  name  before  that  of  him  whose  memory  is  so 
associated  with  this  edifice,  and  so  inseparably  identified  with 
all  public  and  especially  all  historic  occasions  in  New  Haven. 
That  majestic  figure  !  that  benignant  countenance  !  that  com- 
manding and  inspiring  voice  !  Their  influence  still  lingers 
within  these  walls  and  fills  this  place  with  his  presence  !  On 
yonder  tablet  those  who  knew  him  in  the  sacred  relation  of 
pastor  have  inscribed  their  tribute  to  those  traits  of  character 
which  made  his  ministrations  in  that  holy  office  a  blessing  not 
only  to  themselves  but  to  mankind,  and  which  wherever  he  is 
known  have  associated  a  loftier  spirit  and  a  purer  radiance  with 
the  illustrious  name  of  Bacon.  But  it  is  as  the  citizen  of  New 


50 

Haven,  as  the  embodiment  of  her  historic  spirit,  as  the  orator 
on  her  civic  occasions  and  as  the  commanding  personality  in 
her  public  assemblies  that  we  miss  him  to-day.  In  these  capaci- 
ties Dr.  Bacon  filled  through  many  years  a  place  in  this  com- 
munity which  it  is  hardly  probable  will  ever  again  be  occu- 
pied. Nor  was  his  influence  confined  to  the  boundaries  of  our 
own  municipality.  From  his  writings  Abraham  Lincoln  re- 
ceived his  first  impressions  of  the  evils  of  slavery,  and  had  he 
rendered  no  other  service  to  mankind  than  that,  his  country 
should  hold  his  memory  in  everlasting  gratitude.  And  though 
all  other  acts  of  his  life  should  fade  in  time  from  human  recol- 
lection, yet  so  long  as  "  laws,  freedom,  truth  and  faith  in 
God  "  have  power  among  men,  so  long  will  that  beautiful  lyric 
which  we  have  sung  to-day  perpetuate  in  every  American  heart 
the  name  and  memory  of  Leonard  Bacon. 

In  this  imperfect  necrology,  other  names  connected  with  the 
clerical  profession,  hardly  less  prominent  in  their  day  than 
that  of  Dr.  Bacon  must  be  rapidly  passed  over.  I  can  only 
allude  to  Dr.  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor,  who  died  in  1858,  a  resi- 
dent of  New  Haven  for  36  years  and  whose  fame  as  an  elo- 
quent preacher  and  as  the  founder  of  a  new  school  of  divinity 
known  as  the  New  Haven  School  was  unsurpassed  two  gener- 
ations ago  by  any  in  the  country.  I  can  only  mention  also 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Harry  Croswell,  rector  of  Trinity  church,  who 
also  died  in  1858,  a  venerable,  apostolic  man  of  grand  and  dig- 
nified presence,  a  born  leader  of  men,  most  deeply  and  justly 
revered  by  his  people.  Other  pastors  of  long  standing  and  in- 
fluence who  have  passed  away  in  the  midst  of  their  work  were 
the  pious  and  devoted  Cleveland,  who  died  in  1866  after  a 
ministry  here  of  32  years  ;  and  the  genial  and  saintly  Dutton, 
who  died  in  the  same  year  after  a  pastorate  of  28  years. 
Faithful  and  able  ministers  and  spiritual  fathers  of  other  de- 
nominations who  might  well  be  mentioned  have  also  been 
gathered  to  their  rest,  but  these  by  their  long  residence  had  be- 
come specially  identified  with  New  Haven.  They  were  known 


and  honored  by  our  entire  population,  and  departing  left  be- 
hind them  footsteps  and  more  than  footsteps  on  our  local  life 
and  character. 

In  the  ranks  of  the  legal  profession  the  most  conspicuous  in 
1838  were  Daggett,  Staples,  Simeon  and  Roger  Baldwin, 
Hitchcock,  White,  Charles  and  Ralph  Ingersoll,  Kimberly  and 
Townsend.  All  these  have  long  since  been  gathered  to  their 
fathers.  Of  those  who  came  later  and  are  also  gone  I  may 
name  as  most  prominent,  Blackman,  Button,  Osborne,  Bristol, 
Foster,  Ives,  Wright  and  Beach.  Among  the  forensic  leaders 
of  the  bar  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  those  who  reached  the 
highest  eminence  in  professional  and  public  life  were  Ralph 
I.  Ingersoll  and  Roger  'S.  Baldwin.  These  two  great  advo- 
cates were  often  antagonized  in  court  and  presented  an  inter- 
esting contrast.  Ingersoll  was  keen,  graceful,  dramatic  and 
polished  and  impassioned  in  oratory.  Baldwin  was  stiff  in 
manner  and  angular  in  gesture,  but  in  diction  splendid  and 
powerful  as  the  thundering  of  great  guns.  Both  attained  to 
high  positions  in  public  life.  Baldwin  as  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut and  United  States  Senator,  and  Ingersoll  as  member 
of  Congress  and  United  States  Minister  to  Russia.  Baldwin 
died  in  1863  and  Ingersoll  in  1872. 

In  turning  to  the  mortuary  record  of  the  medical  profession 
we  seem  to  pass  in  a  measure  from  public  to  domestic  history. 
The  relations  of  the  family  physician  to  the  community  are  so 
purely  personal,  that  the  mere  enumeration  of  those  in  most 
general  practice  who  have  passed  away  will  suffice  to  awaken 
in  every  mind  its  own  special  memories  of  professional  skill 
and  fidelity.  I  name  them  in  the  order  of  their  departure, 
Of  the  allopathic  school — Dr.  Timothy  Beers,  Dr.  Eli  Ives, 
Dr.  Charles  Hooker,  Dr.  Jonathan  Knight,  Dr.  Worthington 
Hooker,  Dr.  Nathan  B.  Ives,  Dr.  Charles  L.  Ives,  Dr.  Edwin 
Park,  Dr.  Pliny  A.  Jewett,  Dr.  David  A.  Tyler.  Of  the 
homoeopathic  school — Dr.  Charles  H.  Skiff,  Dr.  E.  T.  Foote. 

Among  the  men  of  letters  whose  lives  have  ended  during 


52 

the  past  half  century  the  first  in  order  is  James  A.  Hillhouse, 
the  poet  ;  a  son  of  that  James  Hillhouse  surnamed  the 
Sachem,  illustrious  in  New  Haven  annals.  His  compositions 
were  widely  read  and  admired  in  their  day,  and  he  is  still  re- 
garded as  among  the  best  of  the  earlier  American  poets. 

A  more  distinguished  name  is  that  of  Noah  Webster,  who 
died  in  1843.  In  this  day  of  broad  and  accurate  scholarship  a 
disposition  has  appeared  to  depreciate  the  great  merits  of  Dr. 
Webster  as  a  philologist  and  to  overlook  the  immense  value 
of  his  services  to  the  English  language  in  America.  That  he 
should  have  fallen  into  some  errors  is  not  strange,  in  view  of 
his  limited  facilities  for  research  ;  and  as  to  his  orthographical 
reforms  it  is  undeniable  that  many  of  them  are  becoming 
universally  accepted  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  To  the 
extraordinary  diffusion  of  Webster's  Spelling  Book  and 
Webster's  Dictionary  it  has  been  owir/g  more  perhaps  than  to 
any  other  cause  that  the  development  of  local  dialects  in  this 
country  has  been  prevented,  and  the  importance  of  this  cir- 
cumstance on  our  national  unity  can  hardly  be  over  estimated. 
To  these  books  is  also  largely  due  the  fact  that  the  purest  form 
of  English  is  spoken  in  America ;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  local 
pride  to  us  that  for  two  generations  past,  New  Haven,  the 
source  from  which  these  books  have  been  continually  emanat- 
ing in  their  course  of  constant  revision  and  improvement,  has 
thus  been  and  is  to-day  the  fountain  head  of  linguistic 
authority — the  "well  of  English  undefiled "  for  all  English- 
speaking  peoples.  We  may  therefore  confidently  affirm  that 
the  purest  form  of  English  on  earth  is  that  which  corresponds 
most  closely  with  the  New  Haven  vernacular. 

For  this  distinction  we  are  indebted  primarily  to  the  great 
Lexicographer  but  not  to  him  alone.  Other  eminent  scholars, 
some  of  whom  are  still  living  among  us,  have  taken  up  and 
carried  on  his  work.  Most  of  those  who  have  ceased  from 
their  labors  were  connected  with  Yale  College,  and  to  these  as 
well  as  to  other  distinguished  professors  in  that  institution 


53 

who  by  their  learning,  ability  and  character  gave  New  Haven 
a  world-wide  reputation  for  many  years,  I  shall  make  refer- 
ence in  another  place.  I  may  mention  here,  however,  as  one 
of  the  men  of  letters  who  were  co-laborers  on  Webster's  Dic- 
tionary, that  eccentric  celebrity,  compound  of  poet,  scientist 
and  linguist,  Dr.  James  G.  Percival,  who,  after  having  im- 
mured himself  from  human  sight  in  New  Haven  for  several 
years,  emerged  from  his  voluntary  dungeon  and  went  to  Wis- 
consin where  he  died  in  1856. 

In  association  with  departed  men  of  letters  the  names  of  two 
distinguished  and  honored  citizens  should  be  included,  not 
only  on  account  of  their  long  and  valuable  careers  in  educa- 
tional work  but  from  their  prominent  positions  in  the  com- 
munity and  great  public  services.  Hon.  Aaron  N.  Skinner 
was  Mayor  of  the  city  from  1850  to  1854  and  was  always 
prominent  and  indefatigable  in  every  work  of  public  improve- 
ment. General  William  H.  Russell  held  the  chief  command 
in  the  domestic  military  service  of  the  State  during  the  civil 
war,  and  his  personal  labors  during  that  period  as  well  as  the 
assistance  rendered  by  the  pupils  of  his  military  school  in  the 
drilling  of  volunteers  were  of  high  importance.  More  dis- 
tinctively literary  careers  were  followed  by  the  Rev.  John  S. 
C.  Abbott,  that  pleasing  writer  and  estimable  man,  who  died 
a  citizen  of  our  town  ;  and  that  excellent  historian  of  New 
Haven,  whose  recent  loss  we  so  greatly  deplore,  the  Rev. 
Edward  E.  Atwater. 

Time  will  not  permit  thife  record  to  be  prolonged  as  it 
might  be,  by  the  enumeration  of  many  noteworthy  names  that 
crowd  upon  our  recollection.  Names  of  inventors  ;  like  that  of 
Charles  Goodyear,  whose  romantic  story  reminds  us  in  its 
pathos  and  its  triumph  of  Palissy  the  Potter,  but  whose  services 
to  mankind  were  incomparably  more  magnificent.  Names 
drawn  from  the  ranks  of  commercial,  mercantile  and  manu- 
facturing life ;  names  of  artists,  publishers,  constructors  and 
others  who  by  their  genius,  their  enterprise  or  their  public 


54 

spirit  have  adorned  and  benefited  this  community.  Day  by 
day  as  we  pass  through  our  streets  we  recognize  their  memo- 
rials on  every  side  and  speak  their  names  to  our  children. 

Nevertheless  it  is  fit  that  we  should  recall  with  a  special 
mention  and  gratitude  those  who  by  unusual  benefactions  to 
public  or  private  objects  have  a  claim  beyond  others  to  the 
thanks  and  lasting  remembrance  of  posterity.  Who  can 
forget  on  this  anniversary  day  the  benevolent  heart  of  Brew- 
ster,  and  the  generous  bounty  of  Heaton,  two  names  enshrined 
in  the  orphans'  home  and  hallowed  with  the  orphans'  bless- 
ings ?  Who  does  not  gratefully  recall  the  dignified  form  of 
Philip  Marett,  who,  though  but  a  stranger  and  sojourner 
among  us,  poured  out  his  beneficent  spirit  in  wise  and  princely 
bequests  to  our  local  institutions  and  benevolences  ?  How 
could  we  fail  to  remember  the  splendid  and  varied  munifi- 
cence of  Sheffield  and  Farnam,  and  the  generous  gifts  of 
Street  ?  And  as  our  thoughts  extend  beyond  these  more  strik- 
ing examples,  they  recur  to  the  judicious  liberalities  of  Win- 
chester and  Fellowes  and  the  thoughtful  bequests  of  Fitch.  I 
mention  only  the  dead,  but  as  I  speak  there  rise  in  every  mind 
the  thoughts  of  others  still  living  to  whom  New  Haven  is 
indebted  for  noble  benefactions.  We  remember  one,  a  life- 
long citizen  who  has  passed  among  us  a  spotless  and  honored 
career  ;  and  we  are  reminded  also  of  a  recent  act  of  splendid 
liberality  by  one  who,  born  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient 
colony,  and  formerly  a  resident  of  this  town,  has  never  amid 
the  associations  of  a  distinguished  and  successful  life  lost  his 
affection  for  New  Haven  nor  his  interest  in  her  institutions. 
At  the  next  centennial  anniversary  their  names  will  be  fitly 
and  gratefully  spoken. 

In  all  that  I  have  thus  far  said  I  have  made  no  reference  to 
the  crowning  glory  of  New  Haven,  which  might  well  on  this 
occasion  have  had  the  foremost  place.  I  mean  that  great  and 
venerable  institution  whose  honored  head  is  so  fitly'  called  to 


55 

preside  at  this  birthday  gathering  and  which,  almost  coeval 
with  this  community  is  inseparably  blended  with  it  as  an 
integral  part  of  its  existence.  What  would  New  Haven  be 
without  old  Mother  Yale,  for  is  she  not  indeed  the  alma  mater 
of  us  all  ?  From  that  early  day  when  the  young  town,  poor  in 
goods  but  rich  in  resolution  and  faith,  brought  home  from 
Saybrook  the  maiden  college  which  had  been  its  first  and  con- 
stant love,  and  entered  with  her  here  on  a  united  life  of  mutual 
struggle  and  mutual  affection  has  she  not  been  true  to  her 
allegiance  ?  Has  she  not  faithfully  fulfilled  the  promise  of 
that  youthful  union  ?  In  sickness  and  in  health,  for  richer, 
for  poorer,  for  better  and  for  worse,  she  has  identified  herself 
with  the  welfare  of  this  community,  and  her  true-hearted 
devotion  has  brought  to  it  a  wealth  of  blessings  and  honor. 
If  New  Haven  has  always  enjoyed  a  special  renown  among 
the  cities  of  our  land  for  beauty,  for  culture,  for  morality,  for 
intellectual  privileges,  and  for  all  other  advantages  which 
bring  reputation,  wealth  and  happiness  to  a  community,  is  it 
not  largely  because  its  name  is  every  where  synonymous  with 
Yale  !  There  is  not  a  citizen  of  New  Haven  who  does  not 
derive  .in  some  way  a  motherly  blessing  from  her  presence. 
There  is  not  one  however  ignorant,  however  degraded,  who 
does  not  instinctively  feel  that  any  disaster  to  her  would  be  to 
him  in  some  way  a  personal  calamity.  To-day,  then,  New  Haven 
rejoices  in  the  prosperity  of  Yale  for  the  last  half  century.  Her 
progress  is  our  progress — her  glory  is  our  glory.  Every  new 
advance  which  she  secures  in  resources, — every  new  accession 
to  the  ranks  of  her  instructors,  is  a  gain  to  the  social,  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  material  wealth  of  New  Haven.  As  we  look 
back  on  the  list  of  those  eminent  and  noble  men  who  during 
the  past  two  generations  have  gone  upward  from  her  service 
we  realize  how  closely  they  identified  themselves  with  every 
interest  of  this  community  and  how  much  it  suffered  in  their 
loss.  We  remember  the  venerable  Day,  the  modest  and  gentle 
Fitch,  the  elder  and  the  younger  Silliman,  the  earlier  and  the 


56 

later  Kingsley.  We  remember  Goodrich  and  Hadley  and 
Gibbs  and  the  ever  lamented  Thacher.  We  see  again  the 
kindly  faces  of  Olmstead,  and  Larned  and  Norton.  We  recall 
the  brilliant  Herrick  and  the  faithful  Warner,  and  the  young 
and  promising  Porter,  and  Packard,  both  too  early  lost  ! — 
New  Haveners  all !  Nor  do  we  think  of  these  alone.  We 
remember  also  two  venerated  men,  for  so  many  years  the 
revered  presidents  of  Yale  who  still  remain  among  us  ;  whose 
lives  have  been  a  benediction  to  New  Haven  and  whose  re- 
nown has  long  shed  luster  on  her  name.  Far  distant  be  the 
day  when  we  shall  see  them  no  more  !  but  when  their  summons 
shall  come  we  cannot  doubt  that  they  will  respond  to  the  call 
with  a  serener  joy  because  they  will  leave  the  ancient  College 
developed  by  their  labors  into  a  great  and  flourishing  Univer- 
sity, ever  enlarging  in  usefulness  and  influence,  ever  growing 
stronger  in  the  esteem  of  their  fellow  citizens,  and  safe  in  its 
prosperity  under  so  wise  and  steady  a  guidance. 

And  now  as  we  turn  from  the  contemplation  of  the  past  and 
cast  our  eyes  forward  toward  the  impenetrable  future  we  can- 
not thrust  aside  the  portentous  but  vain  inquiry,  What  for 
the  next  half  century  lies  before  our  Commonwealth  ?  New 
Haven  faces  the  coming  years  not  now  like  a  rustic  youth 
inexperienced  in  the  rude  turmoil  of  the  busy  world,  but  as 
having  itself  become  an  active  and  important  portion  of  that 
world,  and  it  must  be  ready  to  meet  all  coming  responsibilities. 
If  its  population  shall  continue  to  increase  during  the  next 
fifty  years  in  the  same  ratio  as  during  the  last,  it  will  amount 
in  1938  to  some  300,000  souls.  The  questions  what  will  then 
be  the  appearance  of  our  town  or  city  ?  what  its  moral  and 
intellectual  characteristics  ?  and  what  its  influence  ?  are  not 
mere  matters  of  idle  speculation.  Their  answer  will  depend 
mainly  upon  the  wisdom,  the  virtue  and  the  public  spirit  of 
those  who  are  now  living  within  its  limits.  It  is  we  who  are 
to  decide  for  instance  what  will  be  the  outward  aspect  which 


57 

New  Haven  will  present  in    1938.     Will  it  be  then  as  it  has 
been  in  the  past,  peerless  for  beauty,  unrivalled  for  its  pictur- 
esque streets   and   suburbs?    or   will    it  have  fallen  into  the 
second,  third,   or  fourth  rank  for  elegance,  taste,  and  public 
improvements  ?     Let  me  seize  this  occasion  to  press  the  imme- 
diate  urgency   of   these   inquiries.      At   the   present   day   the 
important    bearing   of    municipal    adornment    on   municipal 
growth,  health,  prosperity  and  happiness  is  well  understood. 
As  other  cities  of  our  land  are  advancing  in  wealth  and  enter- 
prise they  are   also  increasing  their  attractions   as   dwelling 
places  by  public  improvements  which  are  rapidly  raising  the 
standard  of   urban    beauty,  and  which   threaten   not  only  to 
deprive  New  Haven  of  her  present  supremacy  in  this  respect 
but  to  leave  her  far  in  the  rear.     The  natural  charms  of   our 
situation,  the  extent  and  variety  of  beautiful  scenery  and  views 
which  lie  all  around  us  and  almost  within  our  present  city 
limits  are  unexcelled  in  the  world.      It   only   needs   a   wise 
liberality  and  public  spirit  on  the  part  of   our  land  owners 
combined  with  prompt  and  energetic  action  by  the  municipal- 
ity  to    secure  incomparable  sites  for  public  parks  and  other 
open   places  within  our  borders  and  on  our  outskirts  at  an 
inconsiderable  cost,  which,  if  neglected,  will  in  fifty  years  be 
covered  by  squalid   tenements  and   a   swarming  population. 
Every  consideration  impels  us  to  take  speedy  action  not  only 
for  the  preservation  to  New  Haven  of  her  traditional  renown 
for  beauty,  but  to  make  her  unsurpassable  by  any  of  her  rivals 
for  all  time.     In  no  way  can  we  so  surely  earn  the  applause  of 
posterity.     No  burden  of  expense  that  we  can  transmit,  if  any 
must  be  transmitted,  will  be  so  cheerfully  borne.     For  assur- 
ance of  this  we   need   not  go  beyond   our  own  experience. 
What  more  inspiring  change  in  our  surroundings  has  occurred 
in  the  last  fifty  years  than  the  transformation  of  the  East  Rock 
range  from  a  shaggy  and  inaccessible  wilderness  to  a  thing  of 
beauty   and  a  joy  forever?      What   expenditures   of    public 
money  have  been  so  popular  and  so  little  felt  as  those  which 


58 

have  related  to  its  improvement  ?  Fortunate  will  be  every 
citizen  who  shall  be  remembered  by  the  unborn  millions  of 
future  years  as  having  aided,  whether  in  a  public  or  private 
capacity,  in  securing  for  them  so  noble  and  beneficial  a  gift  as 
a  public  park  or  pleasure  ground  !  And  thrice  fortunate  they 
who  by  special  munificence  or  prominence  in  enhancing  the 
beauty  and  value  of  such  a  blessing,  shall  have  reared  for  them- 
selves an  everlasting  memorial !  Countless  generations  will 
roam  with  delight  over  East  Rock  Park,  and  each  in  its  turn 
will  pass  away  and  be  forgotten,  but  imperishable  as  the 
mountain  itself,  fresh  as  its  ever  renewing  verdure,  and  fra- 
grant as  its  flowers,  will  cling  forever  to  its  cliffs  and  valleys 
and  winding  ways  the  names  of  Farnam  and  of  English. 

The  other  inquiry  to  which  I  have  referred,  what  will  be  the 
moral  and  intellectual  characteristics  of  New  Haven  at  the 
3ooth  anniversary  of  its  settlement  ?  is  not  less  important  and 
interesting,  but  its  answer  is  less  under  our  immediate  control. 
For  in  respect  to  these  our  community  is  inseparably  associated 
with  the  great  outside  world  in  which  irresistible  forces  are 
re-moulding  beliefs,  re-organizing  institutions  and  changing 
the  moral  and  physical  face  of  the  earth.  We  are  driving  for- 
ward with  the  rest  under  the  sway  of  these  same  forces,  but 
whither  we  do  not  know.  We  only  know  that  in  the  thick 
clouds  which  shroud  our  onward  course  we  hear  confused 
sounds  of  inspiring  and  of  threatening  voices  ;  the  hymns  and 
paeans  of  a  higher  civilization,  of  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to 
men,  and  the  cries  of  conflict,  the  mutterings  of  social  dis- 
order and  anarchy.  Are  these  the  signs  of  new  and  better 
developments  growing  out  of  the  ancient  order  ?  or  has  the 
impetuous  rush  which  has  marked  our  advance  carried  society 
forward  too  rapidly  for  its  powers  of  cohesion  ?  and  is  the 
next  half  century  to  witness  a  pause,  a  reaction,  a  partial 
breaking  up  of  social  elements  and  a  more  or  less  turbulent 
reorganization  on  newly  developed  lines  ?  Time  alone  can 


59 

answer.  Yet  let  us  trust  that  through  all  mutations  for  good 
or  evil,  New  Haven,  fixed  on  those  eternal  foundations  which 
our  forefathers  planted — "laws,  freedom,  truth  and  faith  in 
God,"  will  stand  like  a  figure  of  Liberty  lighting  the  World. 
By  the  right  and  the  necessity  of  her  moral  and  intellectual 
prominence  she  must  guide  the  way  in  every  path  of  advance- 
ment and  lift  on  high  her  beacon  torch  in  whatever  darkness 
and  storm. 


Advance  then,  ye  coming  years,  ye  approaching  generations  ! 
We  fear  not  the  unknown  powers  that  drive  your  heaving 
waves,  for  He  who  transplanted  sustains  and  will  sustain.  As 
we  stand  on  your  shore  and  peer  into  your  mists  this  day  for 
some  augury  of  the  future  of  our  beloved  Commonwealth,  we 
seem  to  discern  looming  out  of  their  murky  depths  the  vision 
of  a  phantom  ship  !  Not  like  that  gloomy  specter  which  our 
forefathers  watched  with  tears  and  trembling,  "  her  masts  fall- 
ing by  the  board,  her  hulk  careening  and  overset,"  and  her 
fragments  finally  "  vanishing  in  a  smoaky  cloud  ;"  but  rather 
we  behold  her  with  the  eye  of  a  confident  faith  coming  bravely 
on,  " her  canvass  and  her  colors  all  abroad"  and  freighted  to 
the  water's  edge  with  prosperity  and  blessings !  And  as  we 
look  she  triumphantly  swings  to  her  moorings ;  she  rides 
safe  at  anchor  in  the  waters  of  a  greater  and  more  glorious 
New  Haven  ! 


REUNION  OF  THE  LANCASTERIAN  SCHOOL. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Blake's  address,  about  350  former  pupils 
of  Mr.  John  E.  Lovell  met  in  the  large  hall  at  No.  48  Orange 
street,  to  welcome  their  aged  instructor  who  a  few  days  before 
had  entered  upon  his  94th  year.  His  connection  with  the  Lan- 
casterian  school  dates  as  far  back  as  its  establishment  in  1822, 
and  was  continued  (with  an  intermission  of  two  and  a  half 
years)  till  the  year  1857,  a  period  of  more  than  30  years,  during 
which  a  large  number  of  those  who  to-day  represent  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  the  intelligence  and  business  activity  of  New 
Haven  were  under  his  instruction.  The  name  Lancasterian 
was  derived  from  Mr.  Joseph  Lancaster  of  England,  who  about 
the  year  1798  devised  a  method  by  which,  on  the  monitorial 
system,  a  school,  however  large,  might  be  managed  by  one 
master,  and  the  expense  for  each  pupil  be  thus  reduced  to  a 
small  sum.  Among  the  young  men  whom  he  trained  was  John 
E.  Lovell,  who  was  led  by  Mr.  Lancaster  to  come  to  this  coun- 
try, and  on  his  recommendation  as  being  amply  and  peculiarly 
qualified  for  the  work,  was  employed  by  the  school  committee 
to  establish  and  conduct  a  school  of  this  character  in  New 
Haven.  It  was  opened  in  the  latter  part  of  May,  1822,  in  the 
basement  of  the  old  Methodist  Church  which  occupied  the 
northwest  corner  of  what  was  then  called  the  Upper  Green. 
In  November  of  that  year  the  Committee  reported  that,  as  the 
establishment  of  a  Lancasterian  school  was  regarded  by  many 
as  visionary,  the  room,  which  was  neither  sufficiently  large  nor 
light,  was  only  temporarily  engaged.  There  were  at  that  date 
about  350  scholars  between  six  and  fourteen  years  of  age  and 
about  50  more  were  applying  for  admission.  The  tuition, 
originally  one  dollar  each  quarter,  was  shortly  reduced  to  fifty 
cents.  The  Committee  in  closing  their  report,  spoke  highly  of 
the  progress  and  good  order  of  the  school,  and  recommended 
the  erection  of  a  building  capable  of  containing  six  or  seven 
hundred  boys.  It  was  signed  bv  S.  J.  Hitchcock,  Andrew  Kid- 


6i 

ston,  John  Scott,  Samuel  Wadsworth,  Wm.  H.  Ellis,  Anthony 
H.  Sherman,  Wm.  Mix  and  James  English.  It  was  not  till 
1827  that  their  recommendation  was  carried  into  effect.  In  that 
year  a  new  school  house  was  erected  on  a  lot  on  the  corner  of 
Orange  and  Wall  street,  the  gift  of  Mr.  Titus  Street  for  that 
purpose,  and  here  the  Lancasterian  School  was  held  till  the 
year  1857,  when  it  gave  place  to  the  system  of  graded  schools 
at  present  established.  Mr.  Lovell  on  retiring  at  the  close  of 
his  long  and  honorable  work  conducted  for  a  few  years  a 
private  school  which  was  largely  attended,  and  subsequently 
removed  to  Waterbury,  Conn.,  where  he  now  resides. 

The  reunion  of  the  Lancasterian  boys  was  a  great  success  in 
every  respect  and  will  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who  partici- 
pated in  it.  After  the  collation  provided  by  the  Committee, 
at  which  a  blessing  was  invoked  by  the  Rev.  S.  J.  Merwin, 
the  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Mr.  John  C.  Bradley,  chair- 
man of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  who  nominated  the 
Hon.  Henry  B.  Harrison,  late  Governor  of  Connecticut,  a  for- 
mer pupil  of  Mr.  Lovell  and  for  many  years  his  assistant,  as 
president  of  the  meeting. 

Gov.  Harrison  on  taking  the  chair  was  received  with  great 
applause  and  said  : 

GENTLEMEN  : — With  especial  pleasure  and  pride  do  I  accept 
the  honor  of  presiding  over  this  remarkable  assembly.  But  I 
repudiate  the  title  of  "president."  I  shall  claim,  for  this  after- 
noon, a  more  honorable  title,  once  well  known  in  your  school, 
although  it  afterwards  fell  into  disuse.  I  shall  claim  here  the 
title,  and  exercise  the  functions,  of  "  Monitor  General  of  Order, 
Time  and  Place  "  in  the  Lancasterian  School. 

Take  notice  now  that  order  is  to  be  preserved,  and  that  if  it 
should  be  violated  in  any  instance  the  offender  will  be  directed 
to  walk  up  to  the  door  of  the  "  Little  Room  "  and  stand  there 
until  Mr.  Lovell  can  attend  to  him. 

It  almost  brings  the  water  into  our  eyes  to  think  that  after 
all  these  years  we  are  once  more  together — boys  again — in  the 
presence  of  our  beloved  master.  Boys  again  !  How  much 
that  signifies  !  Some  of  us  look  back  forty  years,  many  of  us 
fifty  years,  and  more  than  one  of  us  sixty  years  at  least,  to  the 
time  when  we  first  became  schoolboys  in  the  Lancasterian 
School.  And  as  we  so  look  back,  what  memories  swell  in 
upon  us  ;  memories  of  winter  and  spring  and  summer  and 


62 

autumn.  Once  more  we  see  the  little  fellow  tumbling  out  of 
bed  in  the  cold  winter  morning,  fearful  lest  he  may  get  late  to 
school.  He  hurries  down  his  breakfast  while  the  careful 
mother  packs  his  dinner-pail.  She  helps  him  put  on  his  over- 
coat, ties  the  long  woollen  comforter  about  his  neck,  covers 
his  hands  with  the  thick  red  mittens  that  his  aunt  has  knit  for 
him,  and  sends  him  on  his  way.  He  reaches  the  school-house, 
plunges  down  into  the  basement  (you  remember  its  uneven 
brick  floor),  hangs  up  his  coat,  cap  and  pail,  and  hastens  into 
the  school-room  by  the  back  stairway.  The  clock  strikes,  the 
doors  are  shut,  a  chapter  in  the  Bible  is  read  by  Mr.  Lovell, 
and  then  the  hum  of  work  begins. 

When  the  studies  of  the  morning  are  over  we  adjourn  for 
dinner.  Then  the  basement  becomes  a  place  for  eating  and 
fun  and  frolic,  and  also,  to  no  small  extent,  a  provision- 
exchange  where  the  superfluous  cold  sausage  is  swapped  off 
for  the  extra  piece  of  pie,  and  the  russet  apple  for  the  bright 
yellow,  puckery,  delicious  "  Jonah  "  pear. 

The  bell  rings,  the  exercises  of  the  afternoon  begin,  and  at 
last,  when  "  school  lets  out  "  we  run  off  to  the  canal  near  by, 
or  to  Hillhouse  Basin,  then  seemingly  so  far  off,  there  to  skate 
and  often  to  indulge  in  the  exciting  and  perilous  amusement 
of  "  running  bendebows."  Or  else,  if  snow  is  on  the  ground, 
two  great  battalions  are  organized  for  a  snow-balling  fight  be- 
tween the  "up-towners"  and  the  "down-towners."  In  my 
day,  chief  among  the  leaders  of  the  "  up-towners  "  were  the 
Broadway  boys — especially  the  LeForge  boys  and  Bill  Stark 
and  Charley  Brigden  ;  while  the  "  down-towners  "  were  headed 
by  Harry  Lewis,  George  Rowland,  John  Graham,  Sam  Russell 
and  others  whom  many  of  you  will  remember.  While  the 
battle  raged  we  put  the  streets  into  a  state  of  siege.  No  lives 
were  lost,  but  bloody  noses  were  not  uncommon.  And  when 
the  victory  was  won,  up  went  the  shout  of  triumph.  There 
was  no  "Rah,  rah,  rah,"  about  it,  but  our  cry  was  the  grand 
old  "  hurrah  "  that  had  descended  to  those  Lancasterian  School 
boys  from  their  ancestors,  resounding  from  century  to  century 
over  a  thousand  battles  and  a  thousand  victories.  When  I  hear 
this  "Rah,  rah,  rah,"  in  these  days  as  a  substitute  for  the  old 
war-cry  of  the  English-speaking  races  I  almost  fear  that  our 
national  virility  is  beginning  to  die  out. 

The  spring  came,  and  with  it  "marble  time."      The  "little 


63 

ring"  or  the  "big  ring"  was  marked  out  upon  the  ground. 
Forth  from  the  pockets  came  the  slate-colored  marbles,  and  the 
black  ones  that  had  been  carefully  manufactured  by  wrapping 
the  others  in  greased  rags  and  baking  them  in  hot  ashes  ;  the 
"  annies,"  too — (white,  with  thin  red  streaks,)  and  also  the  lit- 
tle "  sneaks."  And  then  from  the  crouching  players  were 
heard  the  frequent  exclamations,  "  fen  inchins  over,"  "  knuckle 
down,"  "  fire  strong."  And  so  the  game  went  on.  Then  came 
"button  time"  and  "top  time"  and  "one  old  cat"  and  "two 
old  cat,"  and  " prisoner's  base "  and  "base  ball,"  &c.,  &c.,  as 
we  all  so  well  remember — and  afterwards,  in  due  order,  the 
sports  of  summer  and  autumn.  Ah  !  those  were  happy  days. 

The  Lancasterian  School  was  a  great  factor  in  the  life  of  this 
town.  It  has  made  a  permanent  mark  upon  our  local  history. 
It  was  a  great  public  school,  not  the  only  public  school,  but 
pre-eminently  the  public  school  of  New  Haven.  Our  popula- 
tion was  then  small  and  homogeneous,  containing  very  few 
rich  people  and  very  few  poor  people,  but  consisting  substan- 
tially of  families  in  comfortable  circumstances  ;  and  the  chil- 
dren of  those  parents  filled  the  Lancasterian  School.  The 
education  which  they  received  there  was  in  some  respects 
greatly  inferior  to  that  which  is  furnished  by  our  public  schools 
to-day.  There  was  no  physiology,  and  no  "  ology  "  of  any 
kind,  no  philosophy,  no  Latin  and  no  Greek.  Nothing  was 
taught  except  reading,  spelling,  writing,  arithmetic,  grammar, 
geography,  drawing  and  elocution.  But  this  system  of  study, 
inferior  as  it  may  now  be  considered,  was  up  to  the  public 
school  standard  of  that  day.  And  whatever  else  may  be  said 
about  it,  this  at  least  is  true — that  the  great  and  manly  work 
which  has  been  done  all  over  the  world  in  past  and  present 
ages  by  the  great  English-speaking  races  has  been  mainly 
done  by  men  whose  early  education  was  no  better  than  that 
which  you  obtained  in  the  Lancasterian  School. 

The  discipline  of  the  school,  too,  was  different  from  that 
which  prevails  in  the  public  schools  to-day.  It  would  now  be 
called  severe,  for  it  involved  a  free,  though  not  cruel,  use  of 
corporal  punishment.  But  that  kind  of  discipline  was  at  that 
time  considered  the  proper  one.  Undoubtedly  it  was  inferior 
in  some  particulars  to  the  softer  and  gentler  methods  now  in 
vogue.  But  if  in  comparison  with  the  present  system  it  had 
its  disadvantages,  we  may  fairly  doubt  whether  it  had  not  some 
5 


64 

advantages  also.  It  did  not  degrade  the  boy,  for  in  those  days 
he  did  not  associate  with  it  the  idea  of  degradation.  On  the 
other  hand  it  cultivated  in  him — (for  the  public  sentiment  of 
the  school  required  him  to  take  his  punishment  like  a  little 
man  without  whining  or  whimpering) — it  cultivated  in  him 
patience,  endurance,  obedience  and  courage.  There  is  in  Eng- 
lish literature  no  finer  figure  than  "  Tom  Brown  of  Rugby," 
and  you  Lancasterian  School  boys  got,  inside  of  your  school 
and  out  of  it,  precisely  the  same  kind  of  discipline  that  made 
v"Tom  Brown"  the  manly  boy  he  was  and  the  manly  man  he 
became. 

And  what  was  the  result  of  all  this  training  ?  It  made  good 
boys  and  good  men.  Among  all  the  hundreds  of  boys  that  I 
have  known  in  the  school  I  remember  at  this  moment  only  two 
who  turned  out  badly.  Of  course  there  were  more,  but  they 
must  have  been  few.  One  of  those  two  boys  I  did  once  meet 
in  a  very  bad  place  after  he  had  become  a  man.  Your  cunning 
smile,  Mr.  White,  is  quite  intelligible.  You  are  thinking  that  I 
should  not  have  met  that  boy  in  that  bad  place  if  I  had  not  been 
in  the  same  bad  place  myself.  But  let  me  assure  you,  gentle- 
men, upon  my  honor,  that,  although  I  met  him  in  a  bad  place, 
he  was  on  the  inside  of  the  bars  and  I  on  the  outside.  Well, 
those  Lancasterian  boys  have  spread  all  over  the  country  and 
even  into  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  it  is  perfectly  safe  to 
say  that,  with  very  few  exceptions,  they  have  become  sound, 
intelligent,  upright  men,  faithfully  doing  the  work  that  has 
been  set  before  them. 

We  miss  many  of  them  whom  we  had  hoped  to  see  here 
to-day,  and  among  them  two  especially  who,  although  invited, 
have  not  been  able  to  meet  us.  One  of  those  two  is  Luther 
Bradley.  Many  of  you  remember  him.  He  was  a  quiet  and 
shy  boy,  but  he  had  the  right  stuff  in  him.  He  went  west,  and 
when  the  war  broke  out  he  enlisted  in  the  army.  At  the  end 
of  the  war  he  had  attained  the  rank  of  General — a  rank  which 
he  gained  not  by  political  influence  but  by  fighting  his  way, 
through  many  battles,  all  the  way  up,  sprinkling  his  blood 
along  the  line.  There  is  another  one — of  all  the  Lancasterian 
boys  perhaps  the  most  beloved.  I  can  see  him  now  sitting  on 
his  stool,  monitor  of  class  O  and  P.  I  can  see  him  there  as 
clearly  as  I  can  see  any  one  of  you  at  this  moment — a  delicate 
and  slender  boy,  with  light  hair,  pale,  grave  face,  large  eyes 


65 

and  a  large  head.  I  have  known  him  and  watched  him  from 
that  hour  to  this.  The  State  of  Connecticut  has  produced  her 
full  share  of  great  men  and  great  soldiers,  but  she  has  never 
produced  an  abler  man,  a  more  accomplished  gentleman  or  a 
more  brilliant  soldier  than  the  hero  of  Fort  Fisher,  Alfred  H. 
Terry. 

This  is  Founders'  Day.  In  celebrating  it  we  are  honoring 
the  deeds  of  the  founders  of  this  town.  Among  them  was 
Ezekiel  Cheever  who,  as  soon  as  he  had  got  on  shore,  estab- 
lished, as  one  of  the  main  foundations  of  the  new  Republic, 
the  first  public  school  of  New  Haven.  We  are  celebrating 
with  our  fellow-citizens  the  foundation  of  that  school,  but  we 
are  also  celebrating  by  ourselves  here  the  foundation  of 
another  and  greater  school.  Ezekiel  Cheever  and  his  scholars 
have  been  dead  for  two  hundred  years,  but — wonderful  as  the 
fact'is — the  founder  of  the  Lancasterian  School,  who  established 
it  sixty-six  years  ago,  unites  with  us  in  this  celebration.  The 
founder  is  here,  and  his  boys  are  here,  after  all  that  long  lapse 
of  time.  Probably  a  similar  incident  has  never  occurred  before 
in  this  country,  or,  perhaps,  in  any  other.  And  what  shall  I 
say  of  the  dear  master  himself — God  bless  him  ?  I  cannot 
utter,  and  will  not  try  to  utter,  all  that  you  and  I  feel  towards 
him  at  this  moment.  Infirmities  have  come  upon  him.  He 
cannot  hear  all  your  kind  words.  He  cannot  clearly  see  your 
faces  looking  so  full  of  affection  upon  him.  But  in  other 
respects  his  health  is  sound  and  we  may  reasonably  hope  that 
his  boys  may  yet  celebrate  with  him  the  centennial  anniversary 
of  his  birth.  His  mind  is  still  clear.  His  heart  is  as  warm  and 
generous  as  ever  ;  and  he  is  now,  as  he  always  was,  the  model 
of  an  upright,  honorable,  and  most  courtly  gentleman.  This 
is  the  happiest  day  of  his  life.  I  call  for  three  cheers  for 
John  E.  Lovell. 

They  were  given  with  a  will  and  three  times  repeated. 

Ex-Governor  James  E.  English,  one  of  the  first  members 
of  the  Lancasterian  School,  was  then  gracefully  introduced 
by  the  Chairman  as  one  who  has  held  the  highest  positions 
and  gained  them  by  earning  them.  Mr.  Monitor,  he  said, 
may  I  be  permitted  to  address  the  school  ?  I  remember  per- 
fectly that  one  day  in  1822  a  young  man  called  at  my  father's 
house  and  interested  him  in  the  establishment  of  a  school  on 
a  new  system.  That  young  man  was  our  old  teacher,  Mr.  John 


66 

E.  Lovell,  then  twenty-seven  years  old.  I  became  one  of  his 
first  pupils  and  was  present  when  the  school  was  opened.  I 
can  bear  witness  to  the  difficulty  of  the  task  he  undertook  of 
organizing  240  boys  who  attended  the  first  day  and  of  whom 
he  knew  nothing  and  of  making  them  orderly  and  studious 
pupils.  Parents  could  not  at  first  understand  how  so  small 
a  man  could  have  so  much  influence  and  control  over  them, 
as  he  certainly  had.  The  school  was  an  object  of  public 
curiosity.  He  made  rules  and  those  rules  he  caused  to  be 
obeyed.  One  of  them  I  recollect  was  that  the  boys  must  not 
play  on  the  lower  green,  because  the  grass  on  it  was  sold  by 
the  town.  Up  to  the  year  1822  the  town  of  New  Haven  had 
not  invested  a  mill  in  a  school  building,  and  considerable 
difficulty  was  found  in  securing  a  room  sufficiently  large.  I 
remember  my  obligations  to  Mr.  Lovell  with  great  pleasure 
and  can  only  say,  in  closing,  that  I  should  like  to  go  to  school 
to  him  again. 

The  next  speaker  was  Judge  Henry  E.  Pardee,  who  was 
appropriately  introduced  by  the  chairman,  and  said  :  When 
Mr.  Lovell  selected  me  to  succeed  John  Lovell  Smith  as 
instructor  in  the  school,  in  which  position  I  remained  seven 
years,  it  was  only  one  instance  of  his  many  acts  of  kindness  to 
his  pupils.  To  him  I  owe,  more  than  anyone  else,  the  oppor- 
tunities I  have  had  in  life.  Notwithstanding  the  improve- 
ments in  methods  of  teaching,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  average 
boys  now  sent  out  from  our  schools  give  promise  of  becom- 
ing more  successful  than  those  educated  under  Mr.  Lovell. 
He  was  always  on  the  lookout  for  the  good  side  of  a  boy. 
This  was  one  secret  of  his  success,  and  the  touch  of  his  hand 
was  always  an  inspiration  to  me. 

The  venerable  instructor,  in  honor  of  whom  the  meeting  was 
held,  then  rose  and  begged  leave  to  retire  on  account  of 
fatigue.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  added,  "  I  want  to  thank  you  for 
the  kindness  you  have  shown  me  to-day.  This  is  the  happiest 
moment  of  my  life,  and  I  feel  like  saying,  now  let  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace."  As  he  was  escorted  by  Governor  English 
to  the  carriage  provided  for  him,  the  whole  assemblage  rose 
and  gave  him  three  parting  cheers. 

Professor  George  E.  Day,  of  the  Yale  Divinity  School,  on 
being  called  upon,  said  : 

This   day  not   only  brings  us   nearer  our  old  and   well- 


6; 

beloved  instructor,  but  nearer  to  each  other,  in  a  common 
bond  of  union.  The  opening  of  the  Lancasterian  School 
sixty-six  years  ago  was  a  great  event  in  the  history  of  New 
Haven.  Boys  who  had  been  scattered  in  fifteen  or  twenty 
small  schools  were  brought  together,  "  up-towners "  and 
"  down-towners "  alike,  with  all  the  advantages  of  a  large 
school  and  the  opportunities  of  common  sympathies  and  a 
wider  acquaintance.  The  unifying  influence  of  this  change 
upon  the  boys  of  New  Haven  has  never  ceased,  and  is  repre- 
sented to-day  by  the  large  gathering  present.  In  looking 
back  to  the  opening  of  the  school,  at  which  it  was  my  lot  to  be 
present,  I  am  impressed  with  certain  leading  ideas  of  Mr. 
Lovell  which  were  made  prominent  at  the  outset  in  its  semi- 
military  organization,  viz  :  the  importance  of  order,  neatness, 
obedience  and  reverence.  The  inspection  of  hands  in  the  long 
line  extending  from  the  old  Methodist  church  to  the  corner  of 
the  North  or  United  church,  the  orderly  march  into  the  cellar- 
like  school-room,  the  reverential  reading  of  the  Scriptures  by 
the  instructor,  the  inscription  in  large  letters,  "A  place  for 
everything  and  everything  in  its  place,"  and  the  prompt  obedi- 
ence required  and  enforced  were  an  education  in  themselves. 
Combined  with  the  personal  activity  of  the  teacher,  his  genius 
for  organization  and  his  courtly  manners,  they  contributed 
largely  to  the  success  of  the  school. 

It  has  been  my  hope  that,  beyond  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
our  honored  instructor  and  testifying  our  regard  for  him  and 
his  work,  it  might  be  possible  to  have  some  enduring  memorial 
of  this  interesting  occasion,  or  at  least  that  some  good  and 
permanent  influence  might  go  forth  from  our  meeting  to-day. 
I  don't  know  what  it  should  be,  but  I  have  an  idea  that  the 
most  fitting  thing  we  can  do  at  present,  in  recognizing  our 
obligation  to  the  generation  which  preceded  us,  is  to  express 
our  interest  in  the  Free  Public  Library  recently  established,  as 
being  a  sort  of  continuance  of  their  educational  work.  I  have 
accordingly  prepared  a  paper  intended  to  further  that  excellent 
object,  which  I  beg  leave  to  offer  without  remark  in  the  form 
of  a  resolution,  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That,  regarding  the  establishment  of  free  public 
libraries  as  the  legitimate  issue  and  needed  supplement  of  our 
public  school  system,  to  which  as  former  members  of  the  Lan- 
casterian school  under  our  honored  instructor,  Mr.  John  E. 
Lovell,  we  are  so  largely  indebted,  and  rejoicing  in  the  good 


beginning  in  this  city  already  made,  we  will  heartily  second 
all  proper  measures  for  the  growth,  enlargement  and  greatest 
success  of  the  Free  Public  Library  of  New  Haven,  and  trust  it 
will  become  a  worthy  monument  of  the  intelligence  and  pub- 
lic spirit  of  a  community  in  which  good  learning,  through  the 
Hopkins  Grammar  School,  the  University  and  lastly  our  excel- 
lent graded  schools,  has  always  had  a  home. 

The  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted. 

Ex-Mayor  H.  G.  Lewis  responded  to  the  call  of  the  chair- 
man, in  words  of  hearty  appreciation  of  Mr.  Lovell  and  his 
work,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  a  generous  response  would 
be  made  to  the  appeal  of  the  committee  for  a  fund  in  aid  of 
the  venerable  and  beloved  instructor  in  his  declining  years. 
Addresses  in  the  same  strain  were  made  by  Lewis  Warner  of 
Northampton,  Mass.,  Horace  Mansfield,  probably  the  oldest 
surviving  pupil  of  Mr.  Lovell,  Edward  E.  Bradley,  S.  T.  But- 
ton, an  invited  guest  as  superintendent  of  schools  in  New 
Haven,  Nathaniel  Niles  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  George  H.  Hurl- 
burt  of  Middletown,  William  H.  Dougal,  James  G.  English, 
Town  Agent  Reynolds,  John  G.  Chapman,  Henry  W.  Mans- 
field, Henry  Mattoon,  J.  Lovell  Smith  and  others. 

The  exercises  were  interspersed  with  a  poem  by  Charles  G. 
Merriman  of  Westville,  and  familiar  recitations  from  the  United 
States  Speaker,  compiled  by  Mr.  Lovell,  and  reminiscences  of 
Lancasterian  school  days  by  Edward  C.  Beecher,  Wooster  A. 
Ensign,  E.  R.  Whiting  and  George  Sherman.  With  a  song 
composed  for  the  occasion  to  the  tune  of  "  Auld  Lang  Syne  "  by 
B.  W.  Jepson,  this  remarkable  meeting  was  brought  to  a  close. 

The  committee  under  whose  direction  this  celebration  was 
inaugurated  and  conducted,  consisting  of  Messrs.  John  C. 
»Bradley,  Charles  G.  Merriman,  Augustus  E.  Lines,  William 
W.  White,  Henry  Peck,  Henry  W.  Mansfield  and  Chas.  W. 
Allen  was  instructed  to  procure  a  photograph  of  Mr.  Lovell,  so 
that  all  who  wish  to  possess  a  memorial  of  their  old  school- 
master may  be  gratified,  and  to  take  measures  for  forming  a 
Lancasterian  School  Association.  Both  of  these  instructions 
were  promptly  attended  to.  The  association  was  formed  on 
the  loth  of  May,  and  an  effort  will  be  made  to  ascertain  and 
publish  a  full  list  of  the  pupils  of  the  school  from  the  begin- 
ning, which  will  be  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  vital  statistics 
of  New  Haven,  as  well  as  a  permanent  memorial  of  Mr.  Lovell's 
long  and  useful  service. 


TREASURER'S  REPORT. 


RECEIPTS. 


Order  on  Town  Treasurer,  . 
From  H.  P.  Hubbard, 


$3,000.00 

2.82     $3,002.82 


EXPENSES. 

Bills  Paid,  Committee  on  Invitations,        .        .  $  75-5Q 

Military  and  Fire  Dep't.,       183.47 


Civic  Societies, 
Schools, 

Oration,  Hall,  etc.,    . 
Medals  and  Memorials, 
Printing  and  Badges, 
Music,  etc., 
Carriages, 
Lancasterian  School, 

National  Salute,        .... 

Indians 

Secretary, 

Due  Committee  on  Publication, 

Balance  to  be  returned  to  Town  Treasurer, 


40.00 

100.00 

80.00 
204.12 
200.73 
750.00 
142.00 

50.00 

52.00 
5.00 

32.87 
450.00  $2,365.69 


$637.13 


ELI  WHITNEY,  JR.,   Treasurer. 
New  Haven,  June  nth,  1888. 


PRESS   OF   TUTTLE,    MOREHOUSE    &    TAYLOR. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000109341     8 


